My Home-Income Community

With the growing popularity of the Linux operating system, many people wonder where to go and how to download the program.  Because Linux is a free operating system, it is available for download in a few places, and installing it is as easy to do as any Windows version.

I have chosen the Ubuntu distribution. It is quite popular and you can order a Live CD shipped to any place free. Consider that downloading an image file is about 700 MB and without a fast broadband connection would take hours.
The best place to download the official version of the Linux operating system is to go to www.linux.org and click on their download link.  You should receive a pop-up box asking if you want to save it or run it " just save to your My Documents" folder (if you are using Windows) and then let it download. (then you would have to burn the image file to a CD)

You don't actually have to install Linux to your hard drive in order to use the Linux operating system.  And in any case it's better to have a Live CD which you just insert into your box and boot from it. This way you can roughly test your PC if its working with Linux before the real installation.

There are special versions that can be downloaded and then burned to a CD.  When you do that, you can boot your computer directly from that CD without having to install it completely and overriding the information already on your system.  This is a great way to go ahead and try out the Linux operating system without compromising your current operating system.

Because most Linux distros are quite complete system with e.g. OpenOffice Suite and many more applications already included, it's a big download. the link to order a Live CD of Ubuntu you find on their home page on the top left side. BTW there are various desktops available (Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu etc.).

For download :

• You should have a high-speed Internet connection (T3, T1, xDSL, cable modem). Trying to download a major vendor's version of Linux will most likely be a frustrating experience with a dial-up modem connection.
• You'll need the ISO images or a DVD image for the distribution you want to download which you must then copy or "burn" into a CD or DVD.
• If you already run another operating system, you must re-partition your hard disk in order to install a "standard" Linux distribution.

When you go to download the Linux operating system, you need to know what you are getting into prior to beginning the download.  Once you're sure you want to try it out, go for it and see what types of options you have in operating systems.