Most distros come as "Live CDs". This means that you can simply boot the computer with the Live CD in the CD/DVD drive and you can test drive the distro without making any changes to your hard drive contents...it all runs off the CD. Note, however, that things may run slower as it takes longer to pull the data off the CD and uncompact it than the same distro will run when installed to the hard drive.

If you like what you see, you can use the same Live CD to install the distro to your computer. You will have a couple options: Replace Windows or "dual boot". Dual booting will let you decide when you start the computer if you want to run Windows or Linux. The installer will install a boot manager that lets you decide which operating system you wish to boot into.

Following the directions below will get a working Live CD that will let you test a distro that has caught your interest as well as install it if you wish.

After choosing your distro, next you need to download the image file of the distro of choice to your hard drive. Most distros run from 700MB to a bit over 1GB for those watching their bandwidth.

Next, you need to burn the image to a CD or DVD as an ISO image. This is not a regular file!!!!! If you burn the image to the CD/DVD as a file, it will not boot. Again, it needs to be burned as an ISO image. I use a freeware program called Deep Burner. There are two versions, a free one and a "premium" version. The free one will do just what you need. It is easy to use and plain English choices make it easy to choose the correct burn format. I strongly suggest that you sit back and let the program do its work as it does not take long at all. When it is done, it plays TaDa and pops the CD/DVD drive open.

Once done, I usually label the CD/DVD, and then put it in the drive and reboot. This time you will see a simple menu pop up asking if you want to start the Linux distro, start Windows, and sometimes if you want to install the distro. Simply make the selection to start Linux. The hard drive may churn, but nothing is being changed.

Afater a few moments you should be at the desktop. If it asks for user name or password, they usually are simply "user". In the last several years, I do not remember seeing any ask for that while starting a Live CD.

Now go and kick the tires! Just remember that it will take a little time to get what it needs off the CD/DVD. Some Live CDs will put as much in RAM as possible and the compact distros can put everything on the Live CD in memory and they run fast.

When done, simply shut down as normal, Alt+F4, tap the power button...whatever way you normally shut down will work. It runs the shutdown scripts, and usually opens the drive tray so you can remove the CD/DVD before it powers the computer down.

If you like what you see, then installing is a breeze. Simply double click the icon on the desktop that gives the impression that it will start the installation process.

You will be asked if you want to use the entire hard drive (erases everything on it!!) or want to keep Windows and create a partition for Linux.

You can usually select the easy or advanced way to set up the hard drive into partitions for Windows and Linux to live on. The easy way is the best way for beginners. If asked how much room to set aside for Linux, 5-10GB will be plenty for the kernel and any number of applications you will ever want to install. It will set up a Swap partition for its working housekeeping. You might be asked some simple questions, but most distros now can get that information from Windows if it is installed.

Of course, if there is nothing else on the hard drive, Linux will take it all unless you specifically take the advanced route and tell it to not take the entire drive. I have installed dozens of Linux distros next to Windows and never had it mess Windows up.

When it finishes, it will initiate the shutdown process and open the CD/DVD tray just before powering off and back on. Upon rebooting you will see the boot manager menu asking whether you want to start Windows or Linux.

Important note about the next time you boot into Windows: Windows will likely give a message that something may be wrong. There is no need to panic; Windows simply sees that its living space on the drive has changed. Let it do its thing so it can see that its partition size has been properly changed and that the hard drive has not developed problems.

I also have a habit running a full manual defrag of Windows before installing Linux or doing anything that changes its living space on the drive. It may not be required, but I feel better doing it.

Now, Linux will start its final detection of hardware on the computer and downloading any drivers it may need. You will probably be asked permission before it downloads any proprietary drivers. It will also look for updates. Linux does not have any particular day to update, the update application simply looks at the repository every few hours for updates. It will put an icon on one of the system bars to alert you of updates.

Speaking of repositories, they are where you will find all the good stuff to install if you want something that didn't come with the installation. When you enter your applicaton manager (the name vaires between distros but are easy to locate and use), you can then use it to see what is on the repository. I will have to say that not everything on the repositories will be of use, and some of the applications there are made to run from the command line. Simply read the descriptions and you will be OK. You can find plugins for applications like Open Office or LibreOffice, GIMP, etc. on the repositories as well.

Have fun! And remember that this page is subject to revisions and additions.