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Ubuntu - The good Linux for everyone

Have you ever considered to use something else than Windows? There are a number of good reasons why you may want to consider a free Linux based operating system:

• You have a pile of PC spare parts that would add up to a decent PC but you don't want to buy another Windows license
• You belong to the dark side of power, using an illegal copy of Windows and your bad conscience is cracking you down
• You believe in conspiracy theories and don't trust Bill and his friends in Redmond anymore
• You like the though of belonging to an already huge community that believes in helping each other and contributing to a good thing that will give the poor people of this world a well working free operating system
• The huge amount of great free applications for Linux is simply too tempting for you to ignore it
• ... and there are so much more reasons to read more...

"But isn't Linux only for experts that can set it up by manually editing hundreds of configuration files with an editor that nobody in the world can handle?" 

Absolutely not! These times are long gone. Installing Linux from one of the more common distributions is really a piece of cake compared to most other tasks we all do with our PCs. Check out below if your type of person (yes, that means YOU) should give it a try.

I am this type of user:	Should I, or should I not?
I buy a readily installed Windows PC every two years from my local dealer who sets it up for me in my apartment. Everything I do is writing emails, surfing the web and buying useless stuff on eBay. I play only games that came preinstalled on my PC.	Ok forget it. No offense, but someone that has never seen a screw wrench should not try to put on the winter tires on his/her car without help. Starting to use Linux without support from a friend would probably be a daunting thing for you. If you can get personal support from someone, it can of course be a great experience for you.
I am installing new software myself that I have bought or downloaded from the web. Once in a while that means I have to Google to solve some minor issues that arise on my system.	You should definitely give it a try. At some point in time you may have to ask a colleague or friend for a little help, but it is quite likely that you will do well yourself with the really good manuals that are easily found on the web. You may want to start with one of the totally risk less approaches that are described below.
I have installed my Windows system myself. In order to play the latest 3D action games I had to fiddle around with the settings of my graphics card and installing a Wireless LAN card on my PC does not scare me to death.	No question dude. You will love Linux. The tiny little issues that you may face during the first days of your new live will make it even more enjoyable for you.
I am an IT professional: PC installations, networks, routers, hubs and switches are my live. I have simply stuck to the Redmond stuff because I earn more money than I can spend and buying software simply helps me to avoid an overflow on my bank account.	Go for it tiger! Buy a good book and you will become a most professional, know-it-all Linux user within one night (you are used to work at night, aren't you?). The community will love to have you as one of them in the forums to advice others.

 

"Well, all this sound quite ok to me, but I am scared that I will completely screw up my PC. You don't expect me to overwrite all my Windows stuff, do you?"

Absolutely not! You can go your way towards Linux in very small and totally risk less steps. Call me a coward but I did all the following very little steps and felt comfortable at any point in time. I can only recommend to do it in the same way. Every step will show you more how good, how simple and how comfortable Linux is today. You will learn while you do it and within a couple of days you will know everything it takes to work happily with your new system.

• Get yourself a so-called live-CD. This means your PC will boot directly from the CD and will run without changing a single bit your hard drive. You can even disconnect your hard driver completely from your system if you don't trust this. Have a look on the graphical user interface and you will notice that there is much less difference to Windows as you may have expected. Play around with the applications that are pre installed and get familiar with all the personal settings that you can do easily. Of course all your changes are lost when you turn of your PC but you can be sure not to cause any harm to your system.
  
  
• Download the free VM-Ware player and a pre-configured Linux Image. This will give you a virtual Linux PC in a Windows window. You can do basically everything you could if this was your real operating system. The performance is of course limited but unless you try to run a flight simulator or something like this you will not notice the difference. The changes you do are stored in one huge file on your hard drive (this file is the virtual hard drive of your Linux PC) but you can still be sure that you do not mess up your Windows system.
  
  
• Ok, after a couple of days with the virtual Linux you have become a true believer. Now you want to really have it on your system, but you still don't want to loose your long used Windows setup. No problem, all major Linux distributions are able to install Linux in parallel to your Windows system. All it takes is around 10Gbyte of free hard drive space on any of your partitions. During the setup process the size of a selected partition will be decreased (without loss of existing files of course) and a new Linux partition will be created on the free space. Once the system is installed you will have a so called boot loader that lets you select which system you want to use at every power-on cycle of your PC. You can even set a default, so you don't have to do anything while your PC is booting on your favorite system.
  
  
• Then the final step. The new PC that you have bought did not come with an operating system. That saved you a fine amount of money and you don't intend to spend that money now for a operating system from a man that is already the richest guy on this planet. Just install your preferred Linux distribution and put on a smile every time you boot your PC...

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