Getting Started with Linuxpage

--This is a draft! Please review and edit, particularly with anything on Macs.--

What Linux is

Linux is an Operating System, just like Windows and OSX are Operating Systems.

Some reasons for trying Linux

1) You want free software. Vista/XP and MS Office cost about $250, but Ubuntu and Open Office cost a CD or DVD.

2) You want to try out some programs or features that are not available on either OSX or Windows. Perhaps the most popular example is Beryl, or eyecandy for Linux.

3) You're a Windows user that is getting tired of dealing with viruses/spyware. Security professionals, fanboys and computer enthusiasts argue the reasons for the lack of Linux viruses ad-nausium, but it is clear that Linux users enjoy a safer experience.

4) You want a backup Operating System in the event Windows or OSX fails on you.

5) You want more choice in what the interface looks like, what applications are installed, etc.

Choosing a distribution

Since Linux can be freely edited and distributed, different groups of people have gotten together and created different distributions of Linux. They defer in how they are setup, how they look and what software is included. Distrowatch is a good place to look for Linux distributions. This guide will be based off of Ubuntu, a particular Linux distribution that has garnered much popularity for its ease of use and software support. Ubuntu Kubuntu and Xubuntu are variants of Ubuntu that differ in their desktop environments. Kubuntu uses KDE, and Xubuntu uses Xfce (Ubuntu uses Gnome). Kubuntu Xubuntu Here are some screenshots for Kubuntu, Ubuntu and Xubuntu to give you an idea of how each desktop environment looks and works. Again, this guide will be based off of Ubuntu, so you'll probably want to use Ubuntu to start off.

Burning a CD

Ubuntu comes in ISO files. ISOs are images that you can download and burn onto a CD or DVD. The steps to burning an Ubuntu CD are: 1) Download the Ubuntu ISO file from the Ubuntu website. 2) Use a burning program such as MagicISO or Nero to open the ISO file and burn to a CD/DVD.

If you don't have a CD burning program, use ISO Recorder (free). If you don't have a CD burner, put the ISO file on a thumbdrive and ask a friend to help, or use a POD computer with burning capabilities (such as the Mac in the Science II PODs).

Starting from the burned CD

With the Ubuntu CD already burned and in the computer's CD drive, shutdown the computer and start it again. The Ubuntu setup program might load at this point, but this is not a guarantee. If it doesn't, then you have to change some settings in your BIOS so that your computer will boot from the CD. It's not so hard; all you have to do is hold a certain button right after you turn on your computer, then change the settings such that the first thing the computer tries to boot from is the CD drive. For example, for most Dell computers, you have to hold the F2 key during the time the Dell logo is present to enter the BIOS settings. Different computers will have different keys that you have to press to enter the BIOS settings. Most of the time the computer will show you what you have to press during that brief period in the beginning when the logo is present. If it doesn't, look it up online or in your computer's manual.

One very nice feature of Ubuntu is you can run Ubuntu without having to install. When you boot from the CD and select "Start or install Ubuntu", the computer will take some time reading from the CD and in a few minutes you will be looking at the desktop. This makes trying out Linux much easier. You can install Ubuntu by selecting



"Install Ubuntu" application on the desktop. Unless you choose to install Ubuntu, no changes will be made to your system.

Hardware compatibility

Chances are you will find that one device you have doesn't work 100% in Linux, if at all. For the most part, it is Linux developers that write drivers for hardware, not the hardware vendors, which leads to a lot of hardware that simply doesn't work in Linux. This is why starting Linux without installing is so useful; you can find out if your hardware will work before installing. However, just because it doesn't work out-of-the-box doesn't mean it won't work at all. This is especially true for graphics cards and wireless devices. For example, a generic nVidia graphics driver is provided on Ubuntu, but to get 3D graphics capabilities and different screen resolutions, you must download the nVidia proprietary driver from the Ubuntu repositories online or the nVidia website. Linux Drivers is a good place to start searching for hardware that does/doesn't work on Linux. There is also a helpful applet here for determining how much hardware is/isn't supported in Linux.

File Systems and Partitioning

If you seek to install Ubuntu, it is highly likely that you'll want to have it share an existence on your computer with Windows or OSX. This is possible, but an understanding of what a file system is and what a partition system is is required.

''A file system organizes data on a computer. When you double-click a Microsoft Word document on your desktop, for instance, the file system tells the processor where to find the data. When you upload a picture from your camera, the file system decides how to place the information on your hard drive. Every bit and byte — including the operating system itself — has its place in the layers upon layers of branching directories.'' -Hans Reiser, creator of ReiserFS Ubuntu supports a wide variety of file systems and utilizes Ext3 by default. Windows uses NTFS and OSX uses HFS+.

A hard drive partition is a logical (as opposed to literal) division of different sections of the hard drive. Having multiple hard drive partitions allows, among other things, the ability to have different sections of the hard drive formatted with different file systems with different operating systems installed. You can have one section of the hard drive with the NTFS filesystem and Windows and another section formatted with Ext3 and housing Ubuntu.

If you already have Windows installed and want to install Linux, you'll need to resize the NTFS partition that Windows resides in to make way for Linux. Ubuntu provides a utility to do this during installation. Partition resizing works best when you have used a defragmentation utility, such as the one that comes with Windows. (Right click My Computer, select manage, select defragmenter.)

Beginning Installation

Before you install, backup your important documents and anything else that you would regret losing if something goes wrong. Oh, before I forget to mention this: backup your important data before installing. One more thing: backup your important data before you install. If you have any external hard drives plugged in, disconnect them. There is an installation program on the desktop after you boot from the CD. Double click it to begin installation. It's fairly straightforward, except perhaps for the partitioning part.



The partitioning part of installation

You have to select which hard disk to install Ubuntu on. If you have one hard drive, this is easy, because there is only one choice. If you have multiple hard drives, make sure you pick the right one. Linux doesn't use drive letters like Windows does, but the size of the disk and the model number should give enough of a hint. Again, if you have any USB/Firewire disks plugged in, they should be disconnected.



The hard drive you selected must be repartitioned to make way for Linux. To do this, you must make the existing partition smaller and use the freed space to format in ext3 and put Linux on. Should you need further options, like say you have multiple partitions already and want to manually select where Ubuntu goes, then choose "manually edit partition table". I don't recommend you manually edit the partition table unless you know what you are doing.



Once you are done, Ubuntu will show you a summery of the changes it is about to make. Make sure they are correct and press OK to begin. If you read it you might notice that there is a "swap" partition. Ubuntu automatically takes some of the free space (less than one gigabyte) you allocated and dedicates it to swap, which is used for virtual memory. You don't need to worry about swap, but it's good to know why it is there.

--Pdobrie1 16:53, 10 June 2007 (EDT)