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UBUNTU
Ubuntu is based on Debian Linux. You can run and try the Live CD before installation though the Live-CD shall be slow to run. You can install Ubuntu as a standalone OS or alongwith your other OS as Windows, you can select your OS when you boot. If you do not want to experiment much and want a proper desktop OS That is easy to learn and easy to use, Ununtu is a great option. It has graphical package manager synaptic to add or remove programs, there is a simpler add/remove program too. When you add, packages get downloaded via net and get automatically installed. I have been using Ubuntu on my desktop for almost one year now. Ubuntu is FREE and Ubuntu has excellent Forum Support. Ubuntu comes in three flavors, Ubuntu uses Gnome as Desktop manager, Kubuntu uses KDE, and Xubuntu uses XFCE. What you choose is your choice, all are user configurable. You can always change the looks later. The stable versions are released every 6 months, and the version numbers are in YMM format, i.e., 7.04 means Year 2007, Month 04 (April). They are officially supported for 18 months. The 7.04 version, named Feisty Fawn, was the previous one, version 7.10 was released on 18th October 2007.Version 8.04 was released in April 2008. Edubuntu, another version of Ubuntu, comes prepacked with educational packages. There are LTS (Long Term Support) versions too, the last one was 6.06, named Dapper Drake. They are supported for 3 years. And there are OS for servers too. Now Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy is LTS version. There is excellent support at ubuntuforums.org, busy round the clock, 24/7/365, no holidays. As far as applications are concerned, there are more than 10000 packages in the repositories to choose from. All FREE. Which flavor to go for : Ubuntu (Gnome) is the default flavor. Kubuntu looks more like Windows, but KDE is reported to be not as stable as Gnome. And Gnome is simpler to navigate. If you have 512 MB RAM or more, you can go for any flavor. Xubuntu shall be the fastest to run as it is lightweight desktop. If you have 256 MB, go for XUBUNTU. You can install and run UBUNTU and KUBUNTU with 256 MB RAM, but make a SWAP partition of 512MB to 2 GB before running the Live CD. You can use GParted for making your SWAP partition, more information is at Partitions section below.. For 128 MB RAM, XUBUNTU, installed with the alternate CD, is the only option. It is a text based installation and you can see details athttp://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/ You can find a lot of useful information on partitioning, installation and Desktop Managers at psychocats.net, but you may find information here short, concise and complete. You can always add others (as kde and/or XFCE to Gnome) later (and remove them too if you want to) via internet, set any one as default, and choose at time of log-in by clicking on options>sessions on the login screen. 32 bit or 64 bit ? If you have 32 bit machine, you go for 32 bit only. In case of 64 bit machines, you can run either, Most packages are available in 64 bit and there are ways to run 32 bit software in 64 bit OS. There is a separate forum for 64-bit at ubuntu forums. Desktop Effects The 3D desktop effects need more resources, not suggested for RAM below 1 GB.Ubuntu 7.10 comes with Compiz, you just have to enable it after installation Live CD or Alternate CD to Install ? If you have 256 MB RAM or less, you can either create a SWAP partition first with GParted Live CD to Install using Live CD or you can use the Alternate CD to install. The installation with Alternate CD is text based, but is not difficult. In fact quite a few users with good machine specifications prefer Alternate CD to Live CD. You can find information at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/I386 and detailed information at http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/. If you are new to Linux and have enough RAM (including SWAP), start with the Live CD. At least you see Ubuntu running before you install and the installation process is simpler.
Ubuntu 32 bit and 64 bit - Gnome	ubuntu.com/getubuntu/downloadmirrors	The default distro
Kubuntu 32 bit and 64 bit - KDE	kubuntu.org/download.php	The one with KDE desktop
Xubuntu 32 bit and 64 bit - XFCE	xubuntu.org/get	The Fastest one, 256 MB RAM is fine..
Ubuntu Home Page	ubuntu.com	The official Ubuntu Website
Support - (Forum )	ubuntuforums.org	The official Ubuntu Forums
Packages	packages.ubuntu.com	Official Ubuntu Packages
Offcial Help Site	https://help.ubuntu.com/
Install using Alternate CD	http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/	Text based, but not difficult, can be very useful
Making Your Own Live Cd - (Applies to all Linux distributions).
To make your own Live CD (or Live-cum-Install CD) you have to download the .iso file. iso files are generally large files, most Linux iso files are of 700 MB size for CDs (the DVD files can be 4 GB). They are best downloaded using torrents, most distros provide the corresponding torrent files which are about 20 to 30 KB in size. A torrent client (as Bittorrent in Windows) is installed first and then the torrent file is opened in it. The torrent client then downloads the iso file. You can pause and interrupt the download without losing the downloaded data. The iso image is then burned using the 'burn image' command (no data CD or boot CD), I have used InfraRecorder (a free image burner for Windows) with success everytime. Some reccommend slow burning speed of 4X or 8X but I have had no problem with 'Auto' mode where Cds were burned at about 20X speed with dynamic speed control. K3B can be used in Linux to burn images. Many Cds end up as coasters when the iso is not correct or proper image burning procedure is not followed. 1) Download and Install BitTorrent OR utorrent http://www.bittorrent.com/download http://www.utorrent.com/ 2) Download and install any iso burner as InfraRecorder OR burncdcc in Windows. http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/ http://burncdcc.en.softonic.com/ You can use K3B in Ubuntu, if you do no have it, you can install it using add/remove. 3) Download the torrent file for the iso A list of mirrors is on this page- http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/downloadmirrors You can find iso and torrents on this Ubuntu page too http://releases.ubuntu.com/hardy/ This is the torrent file (example for one iso) http://releases.ubuntu.com/hardy/ubuntu-8.04-desktop-i386.iso.torrent for this iso (The 32 bit version) http://releases.ubuntu.com/hardy/ubuntu-8.04-desktop-i386.iso Click on the torrent file, you can use the link given here. You can save it or just open it. Open the torrent file in your BitTorrent client. Download shall start. It can take quite a few hours depending on your download speed. When the download is complete, insert a blank CD into your CD writer. Open you CD burner, click on 'burn image' command and select the iso file (not the torrent file). Do not unzip the iso file. Do not burn as Data CD. Do not burn as bootable CD. Do nothing else. Set speed to AUTO . Keep verification enabled. Do not set high manual speed.
Running the Live CD
Place the CD in the CD drive and restart your machine. Go to your BIOS to make sure that your 1st boot is from the CD. Most computers use the 'DEL' key to enter BIOS, but see at the bottom of the page after power up tp know your key, it is 'F2' in my desktop. Press the key to go to BIOS. Select CD Drive as first boot and save. You shall see a few options when you get the first screen after you boot. Carry out a CD Integrety check first. Next Click on the Run Live/ Install. Do not worry, the CD shall only run live and not install now. You need to go through a few steps before you can install. You shall have Ubuntu running in a few minutes. You have crossed a major stage once you have it running live. It shall be slow when you run from Live CD, pretty slow as compared to from HDD installation. Install to Hard Disk Please understand about Partitions before you start to install, it shall save you a lot of time later. You shall see an INSTALL icon at top left. You click on it to start installing Ubuntu. It takes a few more steps after that before actual installation begins. The partitioning part takes a bit of time, then it takes 30 minutes to 60 minutes depending on your machine. The installation process can be unattended, there shall be no restarts. When you restart after installation (remove CD from drive first, or choose 1st boot from HDD in bios), Ubuntu will be your default startup OS (You can change it if you have other OS) and in about a minute you will have the log-in screen. Just enter the log-in name and password you entered at time of installation and in a few seconds you shall have Ubuntu running with many preinstalled programs as Photo Editor, Media Players, Open Office, Firefox Browser. You are ready to download images from most cameras, your USB pen drive just works, and printer driver is most likely there. A pdf viewer too.
Partitions - Applies to all Linux distributions.
Please take a little time to understand about partitions before you install Linux. We shall shortly add more details. Meanwhile you can see the page on partitioning at .psychocats.net Linux needs at least two partitions, one root parttition marked as / , and a SWAP partition that is used somewhat as RAM. All program and data files reside in root, data in /home/<user> which normally resides in root unless you make a separate /home partition. The / partition contains the kernels and the system files. It also contains the added program files. . A better and strongly recommended way is to have at least 3 partitions 6 GB to 12 GB for / root (minimum 4 GB) in ext3 format , 1-2 GB for SWAP (minimum 512MB reccommended) and rest as /home, ext3 format. The home partion shall contain all your data and you can reinstall OS (or install some other OS easily if and when needed. If you have Microsoft Windows and want to retain it, let it reside, use the rest of the space for Linux and any other data partitions. You will be able to use both Ubuntu (linux) and Windows, obviously one at a time. This gives you the chance to use and evaluate Linux and use any program in Windows that has no suitable substitute in Linux. You can use any partition you have or you can resize any partition to free up space. You resize to create more partitions. If you are going to install both Microsoft Windows and Linux, install Microsoft Windows first. The way I partition a 80 GB HDD: 1) 15 GB - NTFS (or FAT32) Windows 2) 10 GB - EXT3 format, Ubuntu / (root) 3) 10 GB - EXT3 format , data partition, not used, kept for trying other OS, versions. 4) 20 GB - EXT3 (/home), used for data 5) 23 GB - NTFS/FAT32 for data 6) 02 GB - SWAP If you resize any Windows partition with data and do not want to delete the data (or program files too as in case you have just one partition and have Windows on it), you have to defragment the partition in Windows first so that all files go to the beginning of the partition. If your RAM is less than 512MB, it is advisable to make the SWAP partition first before running the Live CD. You can download GPARTED, burn its image to a CD, boot with it and edit partitions. GParted is available here- http://gparted.sourceforge.net/ You can find information on Partitioning with GParted here http://www.howtoforge.com/partitioning_with_gparted The Live-cum-installation CDs come with partition editors that are used during installation. There are 'auto' modes, but 'manual' mode is preferred by most users.No repartitioning shall be needed during installation if you choose right ones with GParted. It is strongly recommended to backup all your important data before partitioning or installation.