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Ubuntu Desktop Edition

With Ubuntu Desktop Edition you can surf the web, read email, create documents and spreadsheets, edit images and much more. Ubuntu has a fast and easy graphical installer right on the Desktop CD. On a typical computer the installation should take you less than 25 minutes.

Desktop simplicity

When you start your system for the first time you'll see a desktop that is clean and tidy, no desktop icons, and a default theme that is easy on the eye.
Ubuntu 'Just works'

We've done all the hard work for you. Once Ubuntu is installed, all the basics are in place so that your system will be immediately usable.

Quick and easy updates

The task bar contains an update area where we'll notify you when there are updates available for your system, from simple security fixes to a complete version upgrade. The update facility enables you to keep your system up-to-date with just a few clicks of your mouse.

A vast library of free software

Need more software? Simply choose from thousands of software packages in the Ubuntu catalogue, all available to download and install at the click of a button. And it's all completely free!

Help and support

You'll be able to find help using the desktop browser or online. If you have a question about using Ubuntu, you can bet someone else has already asked it. Our community has developed a range of documentation that may contain the answer to your question, or give you ideas about where to look.

This is also where you'll get access to free support from the Ubuntu community in the chat and mailing lists in many languages. Alternatively, you can purchase professional support from the Canonical Global Support Services Team, or local providers.

Ubuntu in your local language

Ubuntu aims to be usable by as many people as possible, which is why we include the very best localisation and accessibility infrastructure that the free software community has to offer.

You can download Ubuntu, or request a free CD from Canonical.
System requirements

Ubuntu is available for PC, 64-Bit PC and Intel-based Mac architectures. At least 256 MB of RAM is required to run the alternate install CD (384MB of RAM is required to use the live CD based installer). Install requires at least 4 GB of disk space.

Prerequisites

1a. A DVD/CD burner
1b. Virtual Machine[1]*
2. The Internet

Step 1a
DVD/CD Burner
If you have a DVD/CD burner, then you can download the .ISO[2] from either a torrent or some place that provides the *free* copy of the Ubuntu .ISO like http://www.ubuntu.com/ . I personally use a site called Distrowatch. Although this site is used more for the updated releases of most Linux/Non-Linux distributions[3], it provides excellent reliability when downloading distributions.

Now, if you're running Windows ATM (if you didn't it would be defeating the purpose of this tutorial, and if you're running something else; this tutorial is not for you!), you need to download a .ISO burner**. You cannot just write the data to a disk; you have to burn in the .ISO format or you will not be able to boot the disk.

In this method you will have to got to the boot utility at the BIOS boot screen and change your device setting to boot from the CD/Diskette drive first.

Step 1b
Virtual Machine
You need to install a Virtual Machine (VM) in order to run the .ISO on the same operating system (OS) as the one you are on, again I am assuming Windows.

Once you get it installed, read the instructions on how to use it. Make sure to set-up your VM to run the distribution from a file.

Step 2

Either way you do it, you will see a boot screen that looks like the following:

If you want to see how the distribution works/feels/looks/operates then select the "Try Ubuntu without Installing to disk" or something like that. If you trust how it will work or just don't care, select the "Install Ubuntu" selection.

If you choose to install Ubuntu directly, you will be confronted with a screen as such:


Most of the rest is just point-and-click self-explanatory set-up.
After the installation completes, it will ask you to restart your PC, obviously, restart your PC. :p

NOTE: If you have a Windows OS that you want to co-install with Linux you need to install Windows first, because the Windows NTLDR boot-loader is not going to recognise the Linux file-system.

After the Reboot, it should come to a splash-screen as such:

Ok, this is really not necessary, but I need to cover ground for the newbies reading this tutorial. In Linux, you have to work closely with the terminal very early on. Now, some Distributions may have different terminology for what the terminal is but this is basically what it looks like:


Now the most commonly used shell is called BASH[4]. Now here are the basic commands:

In Linux you have what you call a Root user. The Root user has ALL administrative privileges[5]. It is highly recommended there be another account used instead of the root account. In the set-up of Ubuntu they create the user by default.

But in order to perform certain administrative duties you have to have permission from the root user, so, there is a command in the terminal called "sudo". If you want to run a program as root, you simply type:

If you want to run the terminal as root you simply type:
and provide your password.

As opposed to Windows, linux does not boot from a partition labelled "c:\" or "d:\" or such. It "mounts" from the "/" of the partition partitioned for Linux. More information of this can be found here.

When you first open the terminal, you are in what is called the "/home" directory and is denoted by bash as " 'USER'@'HOST/COMPUTER_NAME':~# ". But to change the directory to the top, just type
until you reach the top "/" directory which is denoted as " 'USER'@'HOST/COMPUTER_NAME':/# "

If you want to change a directory to one of the top directories type:
or

If you want to just view the contents of a directory type:

In Linux, programs are installed in packages which can better be explained here

To install a specific package in the terminal, which is where I always install mine, type:

To edit text in the terminal, which most likely will have to do with configuration files, type:
or

To update your system type:

To remove a package completely type:

You can access the terminal by:
Applications > Accessories > Terminal

If you want more commands or more in depth knowledge of certain commands go here or if you want a list of all the commands go here.

Now, to give you a quick overview of the basic GUI programs, I will go over the description and the path to the programs listed.

# Terminal
By now we all know what the terminal is. But this is the Linux shell for those who didn't catch that part. :p
# Gimp
Gimp is the Photo-shop and image creator for Linux. I especially am fond of it.
Applications > Graphics > Gimp Image Editor
# Screenshot
To take a screen shot of your desktop or application.
Applications > Accessories > Take Screenshot
# Desktop Appearance
To change the theme, wallpaper, window quality, etc.
System > Preferences > Appearance
# Screen Saver
To change the default screen-saver or power management.
System > Preferences > Screensaver
# Firefox
To browse the web.
Applications > Internet > Firefox Web Browser
# Xchat
IRC client.
Applications > internet > Xchat
# Instant Messaging
For instant messaging for the most commonly used IMing services.
Applications > Internet > Empathy
# Movie Player
To view movies and such.
Applications > Sound and Video > Movie player
I personally prefer to use VLC if you want this program type in the terminal:
Applications > Sound and Video > VLC Media Player
# Brasero
To burn data, audio, videos, or .ISO images to a DVD or CD.
Applications > Sound and Video > Brasero Disc Burner
# Open Office
For word processing and the such.
Contained in the Applications > Office
# Users and Groups
To change privileges, passwords, and add/delete users.
System > Administration > Users and Groups
# Keyboard
To set different keyboard layouts and the such.
System > Preferences > Keyboard

System virtual machines (sometimes called hardware virtual machines) allow the sharing of the underlying physical machine resources between different virtual machines, each running its own operating system. The software layer providing the virtualization is called a virtual machine monitor or hypervisor. A hypervisor can run on bare hardware (Type 1 or native VM) or on top of an operating system (Type 2 or hosted VM).

The main advantages of system VMs are:

* multiple OS environments can co-exist on the same computer, in strong isolation from each other
* the virtual machine can provide an instruction set architecture (ISA) that is somewhat different from that of the real machine
* application provisioning, maintenance, high availability and disaster recovery[2]
Source

A Linux distribution (also called GNU/Linux distribution by some vendors and users) is a member of the family of Unix-like software distributions built on top of the Linux kernel. Such distributions (often called distros for short) consist of a large collection of software applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, media players and database applications. The operating system will consist of the Linux kernel and, usually, a set of libraries and utilities from the GNU project, with graphics support from the X Window System. Distributions optimized for size may not contain X, and tend to use more compact alternatives to the GNU utilities such as Busybox, uClibc or dietlibc. There are currently over six hundred Linux distributions. Over three hundred of those are in active development, constantly being revised and improved.
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An ISO image is an archive file (also known as a disc image) of an optical disc in a format defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). This format is supported by many software vendors. ISO image files typically have a file extension of .iso. The name ISO is taken from the ISO 9660 file system used with CD-ROM media, but an ISO image can also contain a UDF file system since UDF is backward-compatible with ISO 9660.
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Bash is a free software Unix shell written for the GNU Project. Its name is an acronym which stands for Bourne-again shell.[2] The name is a pun on the name of the Bourne shell (sh), an early and important Unix shell written by Stephen Bourne and distributed with Version 7 Unix circa 1978,[3] and the phrase "born again." Bash was created in 1987 by Brian Fox. In 1990 Chet Ramey became the primary maintainer.
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The highest level of permission that is granted to a computer user. On home computers systems, the owner is usually the default administrator. In business and networked systems, this level of permission normally allows the user to install software, and change configuration settings....
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