Linux. What is it?
Linux.
What is it and why might I be interested in it.
Before I start, a little information for you.
I’m typing this on my Acer laptop.
It is a duel boot system. It has Windows and Linux Ubuntu installed. When I turn it on, it asks me at boot-up, whether I want to use Windows or Ubuntu. I hardly ever use Windows because I find Ubuntu so much better. However, for this, I’m using Windows because I know that most of the afternoon Zoom group use Windows. I’m using Windows this afternoon so I can see how the Windows installation of Linux works.
Windows is horrible.
So far I’ve had five pop-ups and two programs starting without me wanting them to start. Added to that, with Windows, this laptop takes ages to start.
You don’t get those sort of problems with Linux.
You will also not need anti-virus software as Linux doesn’t appear to get viruses.
Now, you might be interested in taking a look at Linux from a purely academic standpoint; something new to learn during lockdown.
OR….you might have an old computer lying around; one that you’d like to drag back from the grave.
To proceed, you’ll need to do the following….and you need to do this before next Thursday’s meeting because some of the processes take a bit of time.
Take a look at the computer that you’ll be trying to revive….although you can run Linux from a USB drive without making any changes to your computer. Make sure it has a USB drive. You’ll need an empty USB pen drive doohicky, at least 4Gb. Also, the computer that you intend working on, make sure it is a 64 bit system. Google your computer’s make and model to find out whether it is 64 bit. There is another Linux operating system that works well on older 32 bit computers. It is called Bodhi Linux. Download the image file here. https://www.bodhilinux.com/download/ download the legacy version.
Download the Ubuntu Linux image file. Here’s the link. https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop
This is for Ubuntu Linux 20.04 LTS (Long term service.) LTS means that the software will be supported for 3 years. A new version of Ubuntu comes out every April. This page also tells you the minimum requirements that you need on your computer for Ubuntu to run well. Incidentally Ubuntu is a South African enterprise. It is totally free to download, install and use. In fact, everything in the Linux world is totally free. Linux comes in many different flavours e.g. Mint, Red Hat, Fedora….you chose the flavour that best suits your needs. My opinion; they are all very similar. Ubuntu is probably the easiest to get to know and with the best support. It will take a while to download as it is a big file…about one hour in my house but I have Virgin cable.
Once Ubuntu has finished downloading, don’t do anything with it. Don’t double click on it or try to get it to run. Just make a note of where you’ve stored it.
Now, you can’t put the file that you’ve just downloaded onto your USB drive. It is just a bit more tricky than that. You’ll need one more piece of software. It will transfer the image file onto your USB drive. These pages will give you a run down on what to do next.
https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows#1-overview
You will need a piece of software called Rufus. (Free, open-source) Here’s the link.
Download AND install Rufus 3.11 1.1Mb
Now, on Thursday afternoon, in order to proceed, you will need the Ubuntu file stored in your computer and have Rufus downloaded and installed. We’ll talk you through the rest of the procedure over Zoom but rest assured, you’ve already done an awful lot.
Things you need to understand.
Once you have Ubuntu on your USB pen drive you can:-
Run Ubuntu on your computer just to see what it is like. This won’t make any changes to your computer. After you’ve taken a look around the system you can just shut down, pull out the USB drive and re-start. All will be just as it was before.
Make a full Ubuntu install. This will completely change your computer to a Ubuntu device. There will be no turning back from this option. However, you will have use of all of the space on the hard-drive.
You can choose a duel boot installation. This will partition your drive into two sections. You can keep Windows on one section and Install Ubuntu on the other. Although this sounds complicated, it really isn’t…you just need to make a choice on the size of the partitions that you’ll need. If you chose this, every time the computer starts you’ll be asked whether you want to start Windows or Ubuntu.
Please note. These pages show you how to proceed if you are downloading files to an Apple device.
https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows#1-overview
Other things to consider.
You can get Windows programs to run on a Linux machine but this is a bit of a black art.
However, Ubuntu comes with quite a few pieces of software pre-installed including Libre Office. This is very similar to Microsoft Office. You should know though that when you create a document in Libre Office, you can choose to save it in Microsoft Office format and a Windows computer will be able to read the document. Similarly Libre Office will open Microsoft Office files seamlessly.
One of the pre-installed programs is called Synaptic. This is a bit like the app store on many mobile phones. You can find oodles of pieces of software within Synaptic, all totally free.
One last thing to consider.
Both myself and David have successfully undertaken these procedures and everything worked just fine. However, please realise that if anything does go wrong then you really should be prepared to take the responsibility yourself We can’t really be held responsible for the vagaries of a variety of computer systems. All I can say is that many people have installed Ubuntu. I’ve just checked the website to find out how many Ubuntu users there are. It was quite refreshing to learn that Canonical; Ubuntu’s parent company do not harvest that sort of data. A rough estimate is that 1-2% of all of the computers in use world wide use some sort of Linux installation
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