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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)

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:


i 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 Linux-
based 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 UBUNTU
Microsoft Internet Explorer Mozilla Firefox
Microsoft Paint / Adobe Photoshop The GIMP
Microsoft Photo Gallery F-Spot
Microsoft Office Word OpenOffice.org Writer
Microsoft Office Excel OpenOffice.org Calc
Microsoft Office PowerPoint OpenOffice.org Impress
Microsoft Office Outlook / Windows Mail Evolution Mail/Calendar
Microsoft Office OneNote Tomboy Notes
Explorer Nautilus
Taskbar Gnome Panel
Start Button Applications Menu
Windows Media Player Totem / Rhythmbox
Notepad gEdit
WinRAR / WinZIP / WinACE etc. 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 – jacobdorne@gmail.com

Jacob Dorne
jacobdorne@gmail.co
m

Tux – The Linux Mascot/Logo

Created on 7th March 2009

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