Step 1: Getting Ubuntu

I suppose a short discussion on obtaining and installing Ubuntu would be a good place to start. Whether you're interested in using Ubuntu as your primary (or secondary) OS, playing around with it from the LiveCD, or just checking it out to see what I'm talking about you can easily get a copy of Ubuntu for absolutely nothing.

The easiest way is to simply download it here. From here you can download the newest version of Ubuntu and the previous (as of right now 6.10), more stable, long term support, version (6.06) via either a direct download or using the bittorrent client of your choice. Once you download it, simply burn the ISO image (not a copy of the ISO file) to a CD. I recommended using the free version of Alcohol 120% to do so if you have never burned an ISO file before. When the CD is finished, just leave it in your drive and restart the computer.

If you don't have a functioning CD burner, high speed Internet, or for some other reason can't download and burn installation CD, don't worry. You can request a free copy here. Once you sign up using a valid email address you can order the CD(s) which should arrive in about six weeks. They have the Mac, PC,and 64-bit versions, but you generally can only order the long term support (LTS) version. Still, you get the CDs of your choice, a nice little package, and some nice Ubuntu branded stickers.

One more thing you should be aware of are the sister distributions to Ubuntu. Ubuntu by default comes equipped with the GNOME desktop environment (which simply controls how the windows look). GNOME is stable and well built, and has somewhat of a resemblance to Mac OSX. Kubuntu comes with KDE which is often described as being more Windows like, and can be highly tuned to produce some nice eye candy. Xubuntu uses XFCE, which is lightweight, and very well suited for older computers with less RAM. Personally I use ubuntu because I like GNOME's clean professionalism.

No matter which Ubuntu distribution you use, it's still the same base operating system. The only thing that changes it the interface. You can use the same software and techniques I'll be discussing, and you're still going to have a similar experience. The only difference is the way it looks. Feel free to try each distribution and use whichever one you feel suits you the best. Remember it's free, and if you do have broadband, you could easily try them all on the same day.

When you boot the CD (you may need to make some changes to your BIOS configuration) you'll be greeted with a familiar desktop. Play around. The application menu in the top left corner (bottom left in Kubuntu and Xubuntu) houses the programs that come on the CD. Play around with them and see what you can do. Browse the Internet. Use GAIM to chat with your friends on AIM/Yahoo/MSN/ICQ. Download some new software if you need it (I'll discuss that later). You don't have to install anything to your hard drive until you decide you want to. When you're done, just click the shutdown icon, take out the CD and boot to your native OS. Keep in mind that running off the CD is much slower than running from an installed copy of Ubuntu.

I admit that this was a pretty boring post. The first steps of anything computer related are always so technical that most people get bored and leave. But stay! It's going to get pretty interesting once we get all the tech stuff out of the way. In just a few weeks (maybe less) we could have Ubuntu up and running and enjoying something more exciting than installations and configuration. I promise.

The Ubuntu Blog is Coming!

I jumped the gun when I posted the link to this blog. There are some things in my life that I want to deal with before I can put any serious amount of effort into this. I have a habit of going overboard on research so I know exactly what I'm talking about, and research can take a lot of time. So I will get to this blog, but it might be a while. Sorry.