linux?

i'm always hearing about linux. what is linux. i know it's an operating system and that it's open source but more detail would be nice.

i'd like to know where do you get linux. do you walk into a Best Buy, or a Circut City and say hey do you have any linux.

i'm in the US if that helps at all.

please anyone who has it respond because i'd like to get it and i don't know where to find it or how to install it.

www.linux.org www.google.com is your friend. You dont buy it. Its open source therefore it is free for you to download and install. All documentation is found on the site or site of the particular distribution.

i do use google, and i tried linuxs.com but it gives me this shit about distributers in the area. so i look into it and what i can surmise about what it's saying is that i must go pick it up or something and the closest on is like a 3 1/2 hour drive from where i'm at so i'm not driving 7 hours to go pick it up.

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download Enjoy

lol Z3ro, you have beaten me twice to the post. I was going to recommend the exact same pages as you did, except wikipedia instead of google.

@fallingmidget: Learn to use google. It is not hard and it will save you from possible flaming.

ok i think i might have it. but why does it ask for "a location near you".

figure it out its not that complicated. Learn to read b4 u ask.

download isorecorder. download ubuntu. burn ISO file to cd. boot your computer and test if your hardware works with ubuntu, test ubuntu to see if you like, nothing will happen to your hardrive or windows from this, it is operating from the cd itself (this is called LiveCD)

if you like what you see, then click install, it will ask you about partitions, set up a big one and install.

ps: defragment windows before this. the way windows handles partitions is messy and requires defragging every once in a while. theres no need to backup your windows files but if you want to then do it. i didnt even defragment and everything went smoothly.

btw, youll love it. you can install hundreds of programs, all at the same time and not even have to restart your computer. and of course theyre all free. (ive done 144 packages at once!) all right from Synaptic which is designed to do just that.

pm me if youve any questions. location near you is just for a faster download probably.

i downloaded isobuster and i have the linux currently downloading as we type buit i was wondering about the whole burn cd thing at what point do i do that.

edit: it's going to take another hour and a half for it to finish so take your time.

oK…well… What your downloading is called an iso file. this is a cd image. When its done you burn it to a cd. ANd read folks post again.

well if you downloaded ubuntu then itll fit in one cd provided its a 700MB cd. you open your cd burning thing and instead of clicking on the normal burn cd click on burn iso image. as simple as that. you might have to look around for that option in the menus or something.

you see this is where im getting confused.

my cd drive says on it compact disk rewritable, dvd rewritable, and dvd palyer. is this a burner and if so where is the option supposed to be located to do so.

/i'm not all that good with the computer it self just web programming and web related things./

doesnt matter just download isorecorder. it works fine. —–EDIT—— and by that i totally meant infrareocrder. http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/

bear with me i havent used windows to burn cds in over a year. </edit>

ok wait. so i'll go ahead and download isorecorder then i run the linuxs from that.

talk to me like your talking to a child with a decent understanding of computers

aight aight lets go over the basics. infrarecorder allows you to burn an image file (.iso) to a cd. which is just what you want to do. once youve got a cd with the image file of ubuntu. you boot your computer from it, which should happen automatically when you insert a cd and then restart the machine. if not youll have to change settings in your BIOS which is very simple and straightforward.

then you test it around, see what its like. as easy as that. its designed for noobs ubuntu is.

Folk Theory wrote: its designed for noobs ubuntu is.

you sound like yoda. but do i have to have a blank cd in the drive before the download is complete or does that matter. and does it have to be a blank cd cause i don't have one. and how do i burn it to the cd does it do it auotmatically or what. i have windows xp if that helps at all.

no it makes no difference its just a friggen file downloading. just that. theres no mystery to it. whenever you feel like it put the cd in your drive, you can do it right now if you want. when the file is down then open infrarecorder and burn the iso image. when its done restart.

infrarecorder i thought you said isorecorder or are they the same thing

i made a mistake. i never used isorecorder. i mean infrarecorder. it shouldnt make any difference though. its just to burn an image file to a cd. nero should be able to do this as well.

ok i'll do it when it's done downloading

which option do i chose burn. do i chose the "write the contents of a disk image to a cd" option or "burn the current compilation to a physical compasct disk" option

the first one sounds right.

All I need now are some blank CDs.