Getting Started With Linux

By Jacob Dorne

Getting Started This guide is designed to help those of you who are tired of their spyware infested Windows or those who are just interested in a change. This guide will help you get started with Linux, a free alternative that is faster, has more features and much much more secure. We will be using the popular distribution, Ubuntu as the operating system in this guide.

PREREQUISITES: A computer with at least 512 MB of memory, 10GB hard disk space and a CPU of at least 700MHz An Ubuntu Desktop CD-ROM (version 8.04 is used in this guide) www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu Backups of your current important files (errors rarely happen but its better to be safe that sorry)

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

What will happen to Windows? You can install Ubuntu on to your computer without affecting Windows and you can just select Windows or Ubuntu when your computer is turned on. You may completely erase Windows and install only Ubuntu but most users would like to keep their existing Windows setup and documents. How is it possible to have Windows and Ubuntu installed at the same time? When you install Ubuntu it recognizes the Windows installation and gives you the option to erase everything and start from scratch with Ubuntu or install alongside Windows so that you can select which one from a menu when you computer is started as said above. What’s the difference between Ubuntu and Linux? This is a commonly confused question and is explained below at Linux terminology. What about my hardware drivers, how will my things work? Ubuntu has drivers for nearly all hardware on the market today and depending on how late the release that you have is, it will have more and more drivers as each release gets the latest drivers added. Graphics drivers for ATI and nVidia cards will not be installed as they are non-open-source drivers and Ubuntu uses open-source only software. However, Ubuntu has a utility that will prompt you when you first start the operating system that installs the latest supported graphics driver for your hardware. Which type should I download, 32Bit (x86) or 64Bit (x86_64)? The 32Bit version will work on all computers but the 64Bit one is optimized for certain CPUs. Check your CPU manufacturer’s website for info about the CPU Architecture. Where will I get help if I have a problem? The Ubuntu forums (www.ubuntuforums.com), and the Ubuntu wiki (wiki.ubuntu.com) are great places for help with Ubuntu and contain lost of expert and user-submitted information.

“LINUX” DEFINITION Most people get confused with what the word “Linux” actually means. Linux is an operating system kernel which is the core part that controls all the hardware-software interfacing and all the other behind the scenes stuff that we never tend to worry about. LINUX IS NOT AN OPERATING SYSTEM!!! Most people think that if there is a problem with Ubuntu they say Linux has problems, but that is 100% incorrect, it is Ubuntu that has the problem. Linux is just simply the core of the OS and it cannot have visible bugs. It is also wrong calling Linux an operating system as it is merely a small piece of software with a basic but important job. So instead of saying that you are going to install or try Linux, you should say that you are going to try Ubuntu or try a Linuxbased operating system.

Now that you have an idea on what you need and where to go for help, let’s get started.

Installing So, we’re up to the fun part. Installing Ubuntu is easier than most people may think and you will have an up and running Ubuntu installation in no time. First things first, I expect that you are reading this guide on Windows right now, if you are then print out this guide as you will not be able to read it during the installation of Ubuntu as this requires that you shut down Windows. So make sure you have a printed copy of this guide in front of you or read this on another computer. All set, OK. STEP ONE: First you must put the Ubuntu disc into your CD-ROM drive. You must save all your work and shut down your computer. (You remembered those backups didn’t you?) On some systems it is the default to boot from inserted CDs, otherwise you must enter your computer’s BIOS and change the boot order to have CD-ROM drive before Hard Drive, refer to your computer manual if you don’t know how to do this. Once this is all ready, start your computer with the Ubuntu disc in the drive. When the menu appears, just select “Try Ubuntu without affecting your computer”. The Ubuntu Live-CD will now load. A Live-CD is when you run a fully working operating system from the disc without affecting your computer. STEP TWO: You should now be at a fully running Ubuntu desktop and you may have a play with it before installing. When you are ready, double click on the Install icon located on the desktop. You should now be in the Ubuntu installer and at the language selection screen, select your language and click next. The next screen will let you select your time zone, do this and click next. Make sure that there are no portable devices such as Portable HDDs, iPods and USB Flash Drives plugged in as this will confuse the partitioning utility. The keyboard layout selection screen should now be visible, select your keyboard layout (usually USA) and click next. The partitioning screen is next and you need to be careful on what you select here. STEP THREE: This step is all about the partitioning part of the install and you must be extremely careful on what you select here to avoid losing any data. If you want to clear all data from your hard drive and start with Ubuntu from scratch, select Guided – use entire disk. If you want to install Ubuntu alongside Windows as explained on the previous page, select Guided – resize (your hard disk name) and drag the slider to the amount of space you want to allocate to Windows/Ubuntu. If you are an advanced computer user and know about partitioning then you may select Manual and customize the partitioning yourself. If you choose manual then make sure you make at least one swap partition of at least 512MB and one root partition mounted at / and at least 8GB. Click next when ready. STEP FOUR: You should now be on the user info screen and there you must fill out your user information and set a password. The part where you must set a computer name confuses some people. The computer name is just the name that people see your computer as on a network and so you may call this something like Bobs-Laptop. Click next to go to the screen where you review the setting that you have chosen and then click Install to start the installation process. STEP FIVE: The system should now be installing and you may continue using the Live-CD desktop while it’s installing. When it is completed it will ask you if you want to continue using the Live-CD or restart the computer and start using your newly installed Ubuntu. Click Restart Computer and away you go. When the menu appears when your computer is starting, you will have ten seconds to select the operating system to start. There will be more than one entry in the list especially after updates so just choose the top Ubuntu entry and usually the bottom entry is Windows. There are instructions on the internet on how to customize the menu.

Ubuntu Basics Well done, you’ve successfully installed Ubuntu (I hope) and are ready to start using the various features it has to offer. Look at the picture below to see what certain parts of the default desktop are for.

As you can see some parts look familiar and some parts are very different. It doesn’t take long to get used to Ubuntu and learn some of its tricks and start getting productive. The table below will show you what applications/features in Ubuntu replace that of which are in Windows. WINDOWS Microsoft Internet Explorer Microsoft Paint / Adobe Photoshop Microsoft Photo Gallery Microsoft Office Word Microsoft Office Excel Microsoft Office PowerPoint Microsoft Office Outlook / Windows Mail Microsoft Office OneNote Explorer Taskbar Start Button Windows Media Player Notepad WinRAR / WinZIP / WinACE etc.

UBUNTU Mozilla Firefox The GIMP F-Spot OpenOffice.org Writer OpenOffice.org Calc OpenOffice.org Impress Evolution Mail/Calendar Tomboy Notes Nautilus Gnome Panel Applications Menu Totem / Rhythmbox gEdit File Roller

The Nautilus file browser in Ubuntu has many features that are quite similar to Explorer in Windows. Study the picture below to see what I mean.

Just as before, some parts are similar and some parts are very different. Over all, Nautilus is very easy to learn and takes very little time to get used to.

Interesting Tips If you were wondering where your C: drive is or how to change your theme / background etc, you will find some interesting information below. In Ubuntu and all other Linux based operating systems, partitions are not accessed as drive letters, they are mounted to folders. In any case the equivalent to your C: drive is / just like on a Mac. For example if you plug in a USB Flash Drive and the Label of it is Bob, then it will be mounted to the /media/Bob folder. If you go into this folder, all the contents of the Flash Drive will be there. Another interesting piece of info is that filenames in Linux based operating systems are case sensitive and directory separators are forward slashes, not back slashes. If you want to change you mouse cursors, themes, desktop backgrounds or even desktop special effects (decent graphics card required) you can go the Appearance control panel located at the System > Preferences > Appearance icon. The quick way to get to the Appearance control panel is to right-click on the desktop and select Change Desktop Background. It is recommended that after installing Ubuntu that you install the latest updates from the Update Manager. If you are annoyed that the boot up menu keeps going to Ubuntu instead of Windows if you’re not fast enough at selecting it. Go to Ubuntu forums of the Ubuntu wiki to find out how to customize the boot up menu and remove the obsolete Ubuntu entries after updates.

I hope that you have enjoyed using Ubuntu and will continue doing so, share Ubuntu with friends and share this guide with them as well.

Links Ubuntu – www.ubuntu.com Ubuntu Wiki – wiki.ubuntu.org Ubuntu Forums – www.ubuntuforums.com Distrowatch Linux News – www.distrowatch.com Jacob Dorne’s (Author) E-Mail – [email protected]

Jacob Dorne [email protected] m

Tux – The Linux Mascot/Logo

Created on 7th March 2009