Ubuntu – Getting Started

Firstly I want to apologise for the number of links on this page, but the material linked to is very useful.  Oh and if you hit any problems while following this guide, post a comment and let us know, thanks.

Sick of windows? Want to get away from it? Feel up for a change, but also willing to change? Heard of Linux?

Well, if you want to switch, and are willing to work at changing, then linux is one way for you. There are many different distributions of linux and that is where you should start. I’m going to recommend ubuntu, since I use it, and it’s very easy to get help with.

You may of noticed I’ve mentioned about being "willing to work at it", this is because
1) Linux is not windows, and works differently so you’ll need to get used to it.
2) Linux doesn’t run windows applications (i’ll come on to this more later)
3) Drivers aren’t always the easiest things to obtain and use on Linux, don’t let this put you off, but bear it in mind.

I state this now, because a lot of people seem to try to change to Linux and leave it because they don’t want to try and get something working. Now I know the other argument is that "Users shouldn’t have to work at something, It should just work", this is true, but not everything can or will work straight away. If you don’t want or like the points raised above, perhaps you should not switch.

For example, I installed Ubuntu and tried to get it going. Everything worked fine, except my wireless adapter. Now, I needed to get it going, I tried various methods (I won’t go into them), and got nowhere. That halted my switch to linux. However, about 2 months later I tried again, after stumbling upon what seemed to be a solution, gave it a shot and got nowhere, but that was my fault, after identifying the correct driver and installing it, my wireless works fine (cuts out now and then, but I haven’t had time to sort it). Support for devices and drivers out-of-the-box are down to each distributions, as they include the drivers in the kernel (the core of the Linux os). Ubuntu is one of the better ones for hardware support.

Looking at that, it seems daunting, but it really isn’t. I am hoping to provide a nice, easy to follow tutorial, with links to very useful pages, which will help you to get going.

How you follow this guide is down to how confident you are with using a PC and installing an OS. Some people who switch have no idea what to do, you need to really want to learn, and be able to follow instructions. Assuming you really want to switch you probably satisfy both.

How to get started:
You’ll need to decide on a Linux distro (distribution), I will be using Ubuntu, so if following my guide, that’s what we shall use. A full list of distros is here.
Ubuntu is available here, so have a read about it or watch this you may also want to watch this before continuing, and when ready we can download and burn an Ubuntu cd. There have been a few previous versions of Ubuntu, right now I’m using 7.04 "Feisty Fawn", this is now very stable and well supported. This guide will probably apply to future versions and previous versions, but I hope to update it as required.

You want the desktop edition, go here to get it. Choose Ubuntu 7.04, and a type of computer, most likely "Standard Personal Computer", and then your nearest location. DO NOT GET THE ALTERNATE CD as this is more difficult to work with for new linux users. Before downloading/while downloading the image, check out the following two videos, this first and then this one second. One thing to note here, is that the download method in the first video has been improved since this was made, so use the method I give to get the image, not the one in the video (Hash checking is up to you). Burning the Image is something that causes people difficulty, so use this. Using cd-rom burning software of your choice (or the free software shown) burn the image to the disk. You do not want to burn as a data cd or audio, or anything like that. What you will end up with is a cd with lots of files on it, rather than just one file. BURN THE CD AT THE LOWEST POSSIBLE SPEED! The second video shows how to dual boot with windows when you only have one hard drive. You can of course have windows on one drive, and ubuntu on another, there is nothing to stop you doing that. You may even want to set up Ubuntu on a separate pc, this also can put old hardware to good use. (system requirements are on the ubuntu site)

Once you use the ubuntu desktop cd, you will realise why I specified it. Designed to be easy to use, simple to install and to show you what ubuntu is like, it’s the perfect starting point for any new linux user.

Following both the videos and the guide, you should be able to install ubuntu. If you have difficulty, e.g. you get no display output, or the system crashes on startup, or something isn’t working, do not worry as chances are that someone else has had the same issue and sorted it. First place for help is the Ubuntu Forums, always a great place to ask for help or find useful guides for starting out. The Ubuntu Screencasts site is very good for visually showing how to do things.

 

UPDATE – JUNE 2009:  Things have changed since I first wrote this, Ubuntu is now version 9.04, and is a big step up from previous versions.  Hardware support is better for most people.  Some people say it’s a bit more bloated, but it’s Ubuntu, which means you can easily get rid of some of the excess baggage if you see fit.  If you are a new user though, I think you will find the current iteration of Ubuntu (or Kubuntu) easy to use and understand, and in some ways familiar to your Windows enviroment.  I do intend to totally update this, so stay tuned.  In the mean time if you want to switch download the latest CD from the Ubuntu site, burn, and run the live cd and see how it is to you.

 

What’s next then?
Hopefully I will describe more advanced things that you can do, maybe even a list of applications which are useful.