2.1 System Requirements

Go is designed to run on a wide variety of systems with minimal requirements. Let's explore what you need to get started.

Supported Operating Systems

Go officially supports the following operating systems:

• macOS: Version 10.13 (High Sierra) or later, both Intel (amd64) and Apple Silicon (arm64)
• Linux: Most modern distributions, including Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, CentOS, and others
• Windows: Windows 7 or later, both 32-bit and 64-bit versions
• FreeBSD: Version 11 or later
• OpenBSD: Version 6.0 or later
• Plan 9: Supported but less commonly used

Go also supports cross-compilation, meaning you can build programs for different operating systems and architectures from a single development machine.

Hardware Requirements

Go has minimal hardware requirements:

• CPU: Any modern processor (x86, x86-64, ARM, or ARM64)
• Memory: At least 512 MB RAM (1 GB or more recommended for development)
• Disk Space: Approximately 200-300 MB for the Go installation, plus space for your projects
• Internet Connection: Required for downloading Go and managing dependencies

Prerequisites

Before installing Go, ensure you have:

1. Administrator/root access: Required for system-wide installation (though user-level installation is possible)
2. Terminal/Command Prompt access: You'll need to run commands to verify installation
3. Text editor or IDE: For writing Go code (we'll cover setup in section 2.4)
4. Basic command-line knowledge: Familiarity with navigating directories and running commands

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