How to Run Linux on Your Computer

Are you tired of Windows? It can be a rather obnoxious operating system, it is expensive, and it can be extremely frustrating. Think about using Linux instead. Although it takes a bit of tinkering and getting used to at first, it is really a much more stable operating system. It also has the added benefit of being open source, meaning that it and all of its components, as well as much of the software written for it, is developed by free collective effort, and that its use and modification is completely free. This opens up all sorts of possibilities to the programming junkie, but to the user, it simply means that it is free software. If you have the patience to get into it, it is well worth it.

There are a whole bunch of different versions, or distributions of Linux in existence, owing to the fact that it can be freely modified and distributed. My personal favorite is Ubuntu, available from ubuntulinux.org. Go there and download the install CD. It will come as a disk image, meaning a large file that contains everything that will be on the CD. It will take a while to download, (since it is almost 700 MB) but once it has, burn it to a disk. Use the "burn image" option in your CD burning utility.

Once you have the CD, pop it into the drive, and restart your computer. Make sure your computer is connected to the internet during this entire purpose. If your computer is not already set to boot from the CD, open the boot menu, usually by tapping F12 as the computer starts up. Tell it to boot from the CD. The Ubuntu installer will then pop up, guiding you through the installation process.

If you want to keep Windows on your computer, (and you probably will) the solution will be to partition your hard disk. The installer will guide you through this, but you can alternately do it with any of a number of partitioning utilities. A ten gigabyte partition should be sufficient to your purposes. When your computer starts up, you will be able to select which operating system you would like to use.

When the installation is complete, you will see a desktop a bit reminiscent of a Mac. Your operating system will already be complete with office software, internet software, utilities, and games. Your computer will be all ready to perform basic functions. Your computer will not yet be able to do things like playing DVD movies, and most likely it will not work with all your peripherals. Setting all this up will be the next step. Guides are available online for each of these tasks. Expect to spend a good weekend at it.