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What is Linux...?
Linux is an operating system, like Microsoft's Windows or Mac's OS X - the operating system (or OS) basically acts as a go-between for your computer hardware and the applications you run on it, like your web browser, office suite, videogames, etc. However, unlike the other operating systems I mentioned above, Linux is free and Open-Source. What does this mean? Well, distributions of Linux can be downloaded and used freely, and you can even download the source code and make changes to it if you wish. In fact, this is one reason why Linux has become so popular - being free and Open Source means there is a whole community out there supporting it and making improvements to it.
Probably the most popular Linux distribution, and the one we'll be looking at today, is Ubuntu.
Why bother with Linux/Ubuntu?
The first thing you may be wondering is why you would want to install another operating system at all. You have your Windows Vista and it works, so why bother with something else at all?
First up it's free. Secondly, compared to Vista, Ubuntu takes up far less in terms of system resources (hard-drive space, RAM, CPU). Now, since we're looking at Dual-Booting this will mean you'll keep your Windows installation which you likely already paid for or had bundled with your hardware, so you may not see the advantage here. But in the future you may want some new hardware, and saving the cost of a Windows license may be appealing - especially if you have a free alternative that you have first hand experience with. Ubuntu also comes pre-installed with a bunch of free software, such as Open Office (basically an Open Source version of Microsoft's Office Suite - it can even open and edit documents created with MS Office), Mozilla Firefox (for all your web-browsing needs), an Email Client, an Instant Messenger, CD burning software... The list goes on, and if it's not pre-installed, you can probably download and install it for free using the Ubuntu Software Centre - this is a bit like Windows Add/Remove Programs, but everything is neatly divided into sections (Accessories, Games, Office, Internet, System Tools, etc.) and everything in the list can be downloaded and installed at the click of a button for free, putting a vast assortment of software at your fingertips.
But aside from price, what are the other benefits? Well, Ubuntu can also be installed on older hardware, since it doesn't have the high-spec requirements of Windows Vista (or Windows 7). It's also good for people interested in software development and computing in general (which is why it may be of interest to people here), with lots of tools and commands useful for programmers and those developing websites. Another benefit of Dual Booting is that you're going to keep that Windows installation already on your computer, including all the files, applications and everything else you have - Dual Booting means when you start up your computer you choose either Windows or Ubuntu, and simply restart if you need the other, which is great for getting a feel for a new OS. You can even run Ubuntu from a CD, meaning you don't actually have to install anything to give it a go!
NOTE: If you don't have a CD writer or you're unable to download large files you can request to be sent an Ubuntu CD - Click Here - and skip steps 1 & 2.
Step 1 - Download Ubuntu
Click Here to go to the Ubuntu download page. Select your country from the location drop down. If you have 32 bit hardware (or don't know) just click the big green "Begin download" button to grab the latest version of Ubuntu. If you know you have a 64 bit CPU, click the "Alternative download options..." link and select the "64-bit version" option before starting the download. This will start downloading a .iso file, which is an image that can be burnt onto a CD - essentially you're downloading some data that needs to be put onto a CD to be read by your computers CD drive.
Step 2 - Burn an Ubuntu CD
You may well already have some CD burning software, if so just fire it up and burn the .iso file you downloaded onto a CD. If not, find some free software to do the job, such as InfraRecorder.
NOTE: When burning the CD you need to be burning the image of the .iso onto the CD rather than just copying the .iso file onto the CD. Once you have burnt the CD you should be able to open the CD in Windows and see files and folders rather than a single .iso file on the CD. If this isn't clear, Click Here for more help, or seek help for your CD burning software on how to burn .iso files onto a CD.
Step 3 (Optional) - Try before you Buy
Once you've got your CD you may want to forge ahead and install Ubuntu, or you may want to give it a try before installing. If you're feeling cautious, stick in the Ubuntu CD, then restart your PC. Depending on how your PC Is configured it may boot from the CD automatically, or it may prompt you to press a particular key if you want to boot from the CD, so you have to pay attention (it's often the delete key or one of the 'F' keys, like F12). Once you're booting from the CD, you should see a language menu. Select your language, and you'll see the main CD menu - select the 'Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer' option, and the Ubuntu OS will start up ready for you to have a play!
If you need some help at this point scroll down to the 'Getting started in Ubuntu' section for a quick overview of the desktop in Ubuntu.
Step 4 - Make Some Room
Since Ubuntu is a separate OS, it's not like installing a new videogame or office application. Usually you just install software on you hard drive, not worrying about where it's going to go as long as there's space. But Windows and Ubuntu need to keep their files separate, which requires you to partition your hard drive. Don't worry, it's not permanent and it doesn't do anything bad to your hard drive, it's simply creating separate sections of the hard drive so Windows and Ubuntu know where they can put files without stepping on each others toes.
Before actually partitioning your drive you may want to defragment your disk (Start Menu -> Computer -> Right Click your hard drive -> Properties -> Select 'Tools' tab -> Defragment Now). Doing this may give you a larger block of continuous space on your hard-drive, meaning you can create a larger partition.
To create your new partition in Windows go into the Computer Management screen (Start Menu -> Right Click on Computer -> Manage) and then click on the 'Disk Management' option in the left hand menu. This should bring up a screen showing all your hard drives. Right click the drive you want to install onto, and click on 'Shrink Volume'. Windows will take a while to calculate the space available and then display a screen showing the size of the hard disk, max space available to shrink by, the amount you want to shrink by, and the amount of space that will be left after shrinking. All of these are in MB (MegaBytes), and 1024MB = 1GB (GigaByte). So, work out how much space you want for your Ubuntu install and enter that in the third box. Click 'Shrink' and wait for Windows to finish. Now you have made some room for your Ubuntu installation.
NOTE: It's not really possible to tell you how much space you need as it depends on what you plan to use your Windows and Ubuntu partitions for, if you plan to have both installed permanently or if you're just trialling Ubuntu, and how much space you have available. However, most new PCs have 100s of GigaBytes available, so you probably won't miss 10 or 20GB. The Ubuntu System Requirements lists 4GB as a minimum and at least 8GB recommended. If you have a very old system with minimal hard drive space, the System Requirements page has some other options for you, such as very minimal installs where a lot of the 'extra' software installed as standard is left out.
Step 5 - Install Ubuntu
To actually install Ubuntu, first stick in your Ubuntu CD, restart your computer and boot from the CD (see Step 3 for more on how to do this). When the menu appears select 'Install Ubuntu' and follow the steps - select your language, time zone, and keyboard layout, before moving on to the 'Prepare Disk Space' menu. At this stage there are a number of options; use the entire disk (which will delete your windows partition and data - so don't do this!), use the largest continuous free space, or specify partitions manually. Using the largest continuous free space is the simplest option and should automatically detect and use the partition you created earlier. However, specifying the partitions manually gives you more control, meaning you can create separate partitions for different parts of the OS and allocate exactly how much space you want to each of them.
If you do manually specify partitions you will have to select the path of the partition (which denotes what it's for) as well as the file system for each (which should be ext3 for all of them except the swap partition). You should create a "/" (or "root") partition as a bare minimum, and also a swap partition. The root partition is for the OS itself and all user files, while the swap partition is there in case you run out of RAM and need some hard drive space to swap the data into temporarily. As a guide the swap partition should be between 1 and 2 times the amount of RAM you have (so if you have 2GB of RAM you probably want 2-4GB swap space). You can also create a "/home" partition, which is a partition specifically for user files - if you do this the "/" partition will just be for the OS and program files, while "/home" will be for all personal files and settings. The advantage of this is that you can easily upgrade the OS without losing your personal settings or files.
This page has some useful advice and diagrams with various ways of partitioning your drives for dual booting a Windows and Linux system, and may also be useful for working out how big various partitions should be.
After the partitioning, the Ubuntu installer will ask for a few more details like your name and desired login details before installing. After installation is complete your computer should automatically reboot, and you should see a new menu appear once the computer starts up - this is the GRUB boot menu. This will ask you to select an OS from a list. After 10 seconds it will load the highlighted OS (by default, Ubuntu). Before doing anything else you should boot into both Windows and Ubuntu and check both are working correctly (once you've booted one, you'll need to restart to boot into the other).
Step 6 (Optional) - Edit / Change the Bootloader
NOTE: As pointed out, this section of the guide only applies to GRUB 1 - the latest version of Ubuntu comes with GRUB 2, so if you have GRUB 2 these instructions won't work!
You may be perfectly happy with the current settings - using the GRUB bootloader and having Ubuntu as the default OS - but you may want to change the default OS or use a different bootloader (such as EasyBCD, which can be easily configured under Vista). I've only dabbled with GRUB, so I'll just be looking at that option here.
You can alter the default OS and the time before booting into the default by editing the GRUB configuration file. In Ubuntu, open a terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal) and type (or copy/paste):
then hit enter. This will load up the configuration file in the gedit text editor (you may be prompted for your password). In this file you will see a line reading "default 0". This defines the default OS. Another line reading "timeout 10" defines the timeout in seconds before loading the default OS. You can change either of these and save the changes. The timeout should be quite self explannatory, while the default OS may require a little more explanation. The number just refers to which OS is the default, counting from 0 upwards - so the first OS that appears in the config file is 0, the next in the config file is 1, etc.
Each OS is listed in the config file with an entry such as:
So simply count the number of these (remembering to start at 0 NOT 1) until you reach the OS you want to be your default and set it to that number. A couple of things to note - any line beginning with a hash character ("#") is a comment so can be ignored (there are some example OS entries which are comments, so you shouldn't be counting these). The other thing to note is there may be a 'divider' operating system which will look something like:
This is simply a 'dummy' OS - it will still show up in the GRUB menu, but it will not boot into anything - however, you still need to count it when working out the number of your default OS. If this sounds too complex, you can easily work out the number by looking at the GRUB boot menu when your system is starting up and counting the entries on that - count each line starting at 0 until you reach the line you want to be the default.
Normally, there will be three Ubuntu options listed (the normal Ubuntu OS, a 'Recovery Mode' version of Ubuntu, and a memtest), a single divider, and the Windows OS, meaning to default into Ubuntu you use 0, and Windows you use 4. It is useful to default to Windows if other people are going to be using the computer, and they want to use Windows (which most people will be more familiar with).
This is fine initially, however Ubuntu will occasionally ask you if you want to upgrade, which can add extra entries to the GRUB menu. If these extra entries go before the Windows entry, the number you worked out will no longer point to the windows entry. You can manually update it each time, or be a little smarter. The additional Ubuntu entries will always get put between the two lines:
By default your Windows entry will be below the '### END...' line. You can move Windows to the top of the list by cutting the Windows entry and pasting it immediately before the '### BEGIN...' line. You may also want to cut and paste the 'dummy' OS entry to separate the Windows and Linux partitions. If you make this change, Windows will be at the top of the GRUB boot menu, and will remain there even if extra Ubuntu entries are added. This means Windows will always be OS number 0, so you'll never need to update the number as long as you want to keep Windows as the default. Your Windows OS entry should look something like:
Getting started in Ubuntu
The desktop in Ubuntu is somewhat similar to that in Windows. At the top of the screen is a taskbar, on the far right is a power icon, clicking on this brings up options such as logoff, restart, shutdown, etc. On the left of the top bar are a number of menus similar to the Windows Start menu - 'Applications' lists your programs (divided into various categories, such as Accessories, Games, Internet, Office, etc.), 'Places' lists useful areas (similar to 'My Documents' on Windows, with short-cuts to your Documents, Music, Pictures, etc. folders) and 'System' has preferences and configuration options (probably most analogous to 'Control Panel' under Windows). Any Windows you open up appear on the bottom task bar, so you can easily minimise and maximise windows.
As standard Ubuntu comes with Firefox for browsing the internet, the Open Office suite which includes a word processor, spreadsheet and the other usual office applications, image editing software, a music player, a video player, and plenty of other bits and pieces. You should be able to find all these without too much problem using the 'Applications' menu.
The easiest way of finding and installing new software is the Ubuntu Software Centre (Applications -> Ubuntu Software Centre). Here you can search for software if you know what you're looking for, or simply browse the available categories, downloading and installing the free software with a few clicks. You can also get help in Ubuntu by clicking the blue question mark icon to the right of the 'System' menu on the top taskbar. Of course you can also search online for help.
Anyway, hopefully that's been informative (and maybe even useful) for anyone who's interested in taking a look at Linux. If anyone does give it a go, let us know what your experiences are. I've been dual-booted for about a month now, using Windows mainly for games and Ubuntu for most other things. I'm planning to start running some older games in Ubuntu using WINE (which acts as a layer between Windows apps and Linux), and at some point do a bit of web programming, as well as just getting a bit more familiar with the Linux environment and commands. I also have a Windows 7 upgrade option, so who knows, at some point I may be tri-booting!
Linux is an operating system, like Microsoft's Windows or Mac's OS X - the operating system (or OS) basically acts as a go-between for your computer hardware and the applications you run on it, like your web browser, office suite, videogames, etc. However, unlike the other operating systems I mentioned above, Linux is free and Open-Source. What does this mean? Well, distributions of Linux can be downloaded and used freely, and you can even download the source code and make changes to it if you wish. In fact, this is one reason why Linux has become so popular - being free and Open Source means there is a whole community out there supporting it and making improvements to it.
Probably the most popular Linux distribution, and the one we'll be looking at today, is Ubuntu.
Why bother with Linux/Ubuntu?
The first thing you may be wondering is why you would want to install another operating system at all. You have your Windows Vista and it works, so why bother with something else at all?
First up it's free. Secondly, compared to Vista, Ubuntu takes up far less in terms of system resources (hard-drive space, RAM, CPU). Now, since we're looking at Dual-Booting this will mean you'll keep your Windows installation which you likely already paid for or had bundled with your hardware, so you may not see the advantage here. But in the future you may want some new hardware, and saving the cost of a Windows license may be appealing - especially if you have a free alternative that you have first hand experience with. Ubuntu also comes pre-installed with a bunch of free software, such as Open Office (basically an Open Source version of Microsoft's Office Suite - it can even open and edit documents created with MS Office), Mozilla Firefox (for all your web-browsing needs), an Email Client, an Instant Messenger, CD burning software... The list goes on, and if it's not pre-installed, you can probably download and install it for free using the Ubuntu Software Centre - this is a bit like Windows Add/Remove Programs, but everything is neatly divided into sections (Accessories, Games, Office, Internet, System Tools, etc.) and everything in the list can be downloaded and installed at the click of a button for free, putting a vast assortment of software at your fingertips.
But aside from price, what are the other benefits? Well, Ubuntu can also be installed on older hardware, since it doesn't have the high-spec requirements of Windows Vista (or Windows 7). It's also good for people interested in software development and computing in general (which is why it may be of interest to people here), with lots of tools and commands useful for programmers and those developing websites. Another benefit of Dual Booting is that you're going to keep that Windows installation already on your computer, including all the files, applications and everything else you have - Dual Booting means when you start up your computer you choose either Windows or Ubuntu, and simply restart if you need the other, which is great for getting a feel for a new OS. You can even run Ubuntu from a CD, meaning you don't actually have to install anything to give it a go!
NOTE: If you don't have a CD writer or you're unable to download large files you can request to be sent an Ubuntu CD - Click Here - and skip steps 1 & 2.
Step 1 - Download Ubuntu
Click Here to go to the Ubuntu download page. Select your country from the location drop down. If you have 32 bit hardware (or don't know) just click the big green "Begin download" button to grab the latest version of Ubuntu. If you know you have a 64 bit CPU, click the "Alternative download options..." link and select the "64-bit version" option before starting the download. This will start downloading a .iso file, which is an image that can be burnt onto a CD - essentially you're downloading some data that needs to be put onto a CD to be read by your computers CD drive.
Step 2 - Burn an Ubuntu CD
You may well already have some CD burning software, if so just fire it up and burn the .iso file you downloaded onto a CD. If not, find some free software to do the job, such as InfraRecorder.
NOTE: When burning the CD you need to be burning the image of the .iso onto the CD rather than just copying the .iso file onto the CD. Once you have burnt the CD you should be able to open the CD in Windows and see files and folders rather than a single .iso file on the CD. If this isn't clear, Click Here for more help, or seek help for your CD burning software on how to burn .iso files onto a CD.
Step 3 (Optional) - Try before you Buy
Once you've got your CD you may want to forge ahead and install Ubuntu, or you may want to give it a try before installing. If you're feeling cautious, stick in the Ubuntu CD, then restart your PC. Depending on how your PC Is configured it may boot from the CD automatically, or it may prompt you to press a particular key if you want to boot from the CD, so you have to pay attention (it's often the delete key or one of the 'F' keys, like F12). Once you're booting from the CD, you should see a language menu. Select your language, and you'll see the main CD menu - select the 'Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer' option, and the Ubuntu OS will start up ready for you to have a play!
If you need some help at this point scroll down to the 'Getting started in Ubuntu' section for a quick overview of the desktop in Ubuntu.
Step 4 - Make Some Room
Since Ubuntu is a separate OS, it's not like installing a new videogame or office application. Usually you just install software on you hard drive, not worrying about where it's going to go as long as there's space. But Windows and Ubuntu need to keep their files separate, which requires you to partition your hard drive. Don't worry, it's not permanent and it doesn't do anything bad to your hard drive, it's simply creating separate sections of the hard drive so Windows and Ubuntu know where they can put files without stepping on each others toes.
Before actually partitioning your drive you may want to defragment your disk (Start Menu -> Computer -> Right Click your hard drive -> Properties -> Select 'Tools' tab -> Defragment Now). Doing this may give you a larger block of continuous space on your hard-drive, meaning you can create a larger partition.
To create your new partition in Windows go into the Computer Management screen (Start Menu -> Right Click on Computer -> Manage) and then click on the 'Disk Management' option in the left hand menu. This should bring up a screen showing all your hard drives. Right click the drive you want to install onto, and click on 'Shrink Volume'. Windows will take a while to calculate the space available and then display a screen showing the size of the hard disk, max space available to shrink by, the amount you want to shrink by, and the amount of space that will be left after shrinking. All of these are in MB (MegaBytes), and 1024MB = 1GB (GigaByte). So, work out how much space you want for your Ubuntu install and enter that in the third box. Click 'Shrink' and wait for Windows to finish. Now you have made some room for your Ubuntu installation.
NOTE: It's not really possible to tell you how much space you need as it depends on what you plan to use your Windows and Ubuntu partitions for, if you plan to have both installed permanently or if you're just trialling Ubuntu, and how much space you have available. However, most new PCs have 100s of GigaBytes available, so you probably won't miss 10 or 20GB. The Ubuntu System Requirements lists 4GB as a minimum and at least 8GB recommended. If you have a very old system with minimal hard drive space, the System Requirements page has some other options for you, such as very minimal installs where a lot of the 'extra' software installed as standard is left out.
Step 5 - Install Ubuntu
To actually install Ubuntu, first stick in your Ubuntu CD, restart your computer and boot from the CD (see Step 3 for more on how to do this). When the menu appears select 'Install Ubuntu' and follow the steps - select your language, time zone, and keyboard layout, before moving on to the 'Prepare Disk Space' menu. At this stage there are a number of options; use the entire disk (which will delete your windows partition and data - so don't do this!), use the largest continuous free space, or specify partitions manually. Using the largest continuous free space is the simplest option and should automatically detect and use the partition you created earlier. However, specifying the partitions manually gives you more control, meaning you can create separate partitions for different parts of the OS and allocate exactly how much space you want to each of them.
If you do manually specify partitions you will have to select the path of the partition (which denotes what it's for) as well as the file system for each (which should be ext3 for all of them except the swap partition). You should create a "/" (or "root") partition as a bare minimum, and also a swap partition. The root partition is for the OS itself and all user files, while the swap partition is there in case you run out of RAM and need some hard drive space to swap the data into temporarily. As a guide the swap partition should be between 1 and 2 times the amount of RAM you have (so if you have 2GB of RAM you probably want 2-4GB swap space). You can also create a "/home" partition, which is a partition specifically for user files - if you do this the "/" partition will just be for the OS and program files, while "/home" will be for all personal files and settings. The advantage of this is that you can easily upgrade the OS without losing your personal settings or files.
This page has some useful advice and diagrams with various ways of partitioning your drives for dual booting a Windows and Linux system, and may also be useful for working out how big various partitions should be.
After the partitioning, the Ubuntu installer will ask for a few more details like your name and desired login details before installing. After installation is complete your computer should automatically reboot, and you should see a new menu appear once the computer starts up - this is the GRUB boot menu. This will ask you to select an OS from a list. After 10 seconds it will load the highlighted OS (by default, Ubuntu). Before doing anything else you should boot into both Windows and Ubuntu and check both are working correctly (once you've booted one, you'll need to restart to boot into the other).
Step 6 (Optional) - Edit / Change the Bootloader
NOTE: As pointed out, this section of the guide only applies to GRUB 1 - the latest version of Ubuntu comes with GRUB 2, so if you have GRUB 2 these instructions won't work!
You may be perfectly happy with the current settings - using the GRUB bootloader and having Ubuntu as the default OS - but you may want to change the default OS or use a different bootloader (such as EasyBCD, which can be easily configured under Vista). I've only dabbled with GRUB, so I'll just be looking at that option here.
You can alter the default OS and the time before booting into the default by editing the GRUB configuration file. In Ubuntu, open a terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal) and type (or copy/paste):
sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lstthen hit enter. This will load up the configuration file in the gedit text editor (you may be prompted for your password). In this file you will see a line reading "default 0". This defines the default OS. Another line reading "timeout 10" defines the timeout in seconds before loading the default OS. You can change either of these and save the changes. The timeout should be quite self explannatory, while the default OS may require a little more explanation. The number just refers to which OS is the default, counting from 0 upwards - so the first OS that appears in the config file is 0, the next in the config file is 1, etc.
Each OS is listed in the config file with an entry such as:
title Ubuntu 9.10, kernel 2.6.31-15-generic
uuid 2f0c25ad-7e61-4168-b57c-cf8ee40fc854
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-15-generic root=UUID=2f0c25ad-7e61-4168-b57c-cf8ee40fc854 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-15-generic
quietSo simply count the number of these (remembering to start at 0 NOT 1) until you reach the OS you want to be your default and set it to that number. A couple of things to note - any line beginning with a hash character ("#") is a comment so can be ignored (there are some example OS entries which are comments, so you shouldn't be counting these). The other thing to note is there may be a 'divider' operating system which will look something like:
# This is a divider
title Other operating systems:
rootThis is simply a 'dummy' OS - it will still show up in the GRUB menu, but it will not boot into anything - however, you still need to count it when working out the number of your default OS. If this sounds too complex, you can easily work out the number by looking at the GRUB boot menu when your system is starting up and counting the entries on that - count each line starting at 0 until you reach the line you want to be the default.
Normally, there will be three Ubuntu options listed (the normal Ubuntu OS, a 'Recovery Mode' version of Ubuntu, and a memtest), a single divider, and the Windows OS, meaning to default into Ubuntu you use 0, and Windows you use 4. It is useful to default to Windows if other people are going to be using the computer, and they want to use Windows (which most people will be more familiar with).
This is fine initially, however Ubuntu will occasionally ask you if you want to upgrade, which can add extra entries to the GRUB menu. If these extra entries go before the Windows entry, the number you worked out will no longer point to the windows entry. You can manually update it each time, or be a little smarter. The additional Ubuntu entries will always get put between the two lines:
### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
...
### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LISTBy default your Windows entry will be below the '### END...' line. You can move Windows to the top of the list by cutting the Windows entry and pasting it immediately before the '### BEGIN...' line. You may also want to cut and paste the 'dummy' OS entry to separate the Windows and Linux partitions. If you make this change, Windows will be at the top of the GRUB boot menu, and will remain there even if extra Ubuntu entries are added. This means Windows will always be OS number 0, so you'll never need to update the number as long as you want to keep Windows as the default. Your Windows OS entry should look something like:
# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title Windows Vista (loader)
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1Getting started in Ubuntu
The desktop in Ubuntu is somewhat similar to that in Windows. At the top of the screen is a taskbar, on the far right is a power icon, clicking on this brings up options such as logoff, restart, shutdown, etc. On the left of the top bar are a number of menus similar to the Windows Start menu - 'Applications' lists your programs (divided into various categories, such as Accessories, Games, Internet, Office, etc.), 'Places' lists useful areas (similar to 'My Documents' on Windows, with short-cuts to your Documents, Music, Pictures, etc. folders) and 'System' has preferences and configuration options (probably most analogous to 'Control Panel' under Windows). Any Windows you open up appear on the bottom task bar, so you can easily minimise and maximise windows.
As standard Ubuntu comes with Firefox for browsing the internet, the Open Office suite which includes a word processor, spreadsheet and the other usual office applications, image editing software, a music player, a video player, and plenty of other bits and pieces. You should be able to find all these without too much problem using the 'Applications' menu.
The easiest way of finding and installing new software is the Ubuntu Software Centre (Applications -> Ubuntu Software Centre). Here you can search for software if you know what you're looking for, or simply browse the available categories, downloading and installing the free software with a few clicks. You can also get help in Ubuntu by clicking the blue question mark icon to the right of the 'System' menu on the top taskbar. Of course you can also search online for help.
Anyway, hopefully that's been informative (and maybe even useful) for anyone who's interested in taking a look at Linux. If anyone does give it a go, let us know what your experiences are. I've been dual-booted for about a month now, using Windows mainly for games and Ubuntu for most other things. I'm planning to start running some older games in Ubuntu using WINE (which acts as a layer between Windows apps and Linux), and at some point do a bit of web programming, as well as just getting a bit more familiar with the Linux environment and commands. I also have a Windows 7 upgrade option, so who knows, at some point I may be tri-booting!
Ah, I (perhaps foolishly) downloaded just before 9.10 was released, so was initially on 9.04. I'm now upgraded to 9.10 but obviously still have GRUB, not GRUB 2.
What is Linux...?
Linux is an operating system, like Microsoft's Windows or Mac's OS X - the operating system (or OS) basically acts as a go-between for your computer hardware and the applications you run on it, like your web browser, office suite, videogames, etc. However, unlike the other operating systems I mentioned above, Linux is free and Open-Source. What does this mean? Well, distributions of Linux can be downloaded and used freely, and you can even download the source code and make changes to it if you wish. In fact, this is one reason why Linux has become so popular - being free and Open Source means there is a whole community out there supporting it and making improvements to it.
Probably the most popular Linux distribution, and the one we'll be looking at today, is Ubuntu.
Why bother with Linux/Ubuntu?
The first thing you may be wondering is why you would want to install another operating system at all. You have your Windows Vista and it works, so why bother with something else at all?
First up it's free. Secondly, compared to Vista, Ubuntu takes up far less in terms of system resources (hard-drive space, RAM, CPU). Now, since we're looking at Dual-Booting this will mean you'll keep your Windows installation which you likely already paid for or had bundled with your hardware, so you may not see the advantage here. But in the future you may want some new hardware, and saving the cost of a Windows license may be appealing - especially if you have a free alternative that you have first hand experience with. Ubuntu also comes pre-installed with a bunch of free software, such as Open Office (basically an Open Source version of Microsoft's Office Suite - it can even open and edit documents created with MS Office), Mozilla Firefox (for all your web-browsing needs), an Email Client, an Instant Messenger, CD burning software... The list goes on, and if it's not pre-installed, you can probably download and install it for free using the Ubuntu Software Centre - this is a bit like Windows Add/Remove Programs, but everything is neatly divided into sections (Accessories, Games, Office, Internet, System Tools, etc.) and everything in the list can be downloaded and installed at the click of a button for free, putting a vast assortment of software at your fingertips.
But aside from price, what are the other benefits? Well, Ubuntu can also be installed on older hardware, since it doesn't have the high-spec requirements of Windows Vista (or Windows 7). It's also good for people interested in software development and computing in general (which is why it may be of interest to people here), with lots of tools and commands useful for programmers and those developing websites. Another benefit of Dual Booting is that you're going to keep that Windows installation already on your computer, including all the files, applications and everything else you have - Dual Booting means when you start up your computer you choose either Windows or Ubuntu, and simply restart if you need the other, which is great for getting a feel for a new OS. You can even run Ubuntu from a CD, meaning you don't actually have to install anything to give it a go!
NOTE: If you don't have a CD writer or you're unable to download large files you can request to be sent an Ubuntu CD - Click Here - and skip steps 1 & 2.
Step 1 - Download Ubuntu
Click Here to go to the Ubuntu download page. Select your country from the location drop down. If you have 32 bit hardware (or don't know) just click the big green "Begin download" button to grab the latest version of Ubuntu. If you know you have a 64 bit CPU, click the "Alternative download options..." link and select the "64-bit version" option before starting the download. This will start downloading a .iso file, which is an image that can be burnt onto a CD - essentially you're downloading some data that needs to be put onto a CD to be read by your computers CD drive.
Step 2 - Burn an Ubuntu CD
You may well already have some CD burning software, if so just fire it up and burn the .iso file you downloaded onto a CD. If not, find some free software to do the job, such as InfraRecorder.
NOTE: When burning the CD you need to be burning the image of the .iso onto the CD rather than just copying the .iso file onto the CD. Once you have burnt the CD you should be able to open the CD in Windows and see files and folders rather than a single .iso file on the CD. If this isn't clear, Click Here for more help, or seek help for your CD burning software on how to burn .iso files onto a CD.
Step 3 (Optional) - Try before you Buy
Once you've got your CD you may want to forge ahead and install Ubuntu, or you may want to give it a try before installing. If you're feeling cautious, stick in the Ubuntu CD, then restart your PC. Depending on how your PC Is configured it may boot from the CD automatically, or it may prompt you to press a particular key if you want to boot from the CD, so you have to pay attention (it's often the delete key or one of the 'F' keys, like F12). Once you're booting from the CD, you should see a language menu. Select your language, and you'll see the main CD menu - select the 'Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer' option, and the Ubuntu OS will start up ready for you to have a play!
If you need some help at this point scroll down to the 'Getting started in Ubuntu' section for a quick overview of the desktop in Ubuntu.
Step 4 - Make Some Room
Since Ubuntu is a separate OS, it's not like installing a new videogame or office application. Usually you just install software on you hard drive, not worrying about where it's going to go as long as there's space. But Windows and Ubuntu need to keep their files separate, which requires you to partition your hard drive. Don't worry, it's not permanent and it doesn't do anything bad to your hard drive, it's simply creating separate sections of the hard drive so Windows and Ubuntu know where they can put files without stepping on each others toes.
Before actually partitioning your drive you may want to defragment your disk (Start Menu -> Computer -> Right Click your hard drive -> Properties -> Select 'Tools' tab -> Defragment Now). Doing this may give you a larger block of continuous space on your hard-drive, meaning you can create a larger partition.
To create your new partition in Windows go into the Computer Management screen (Start Menu -> Right Click on Computer -> Manage) and then click on the 'Disk Management' option in the left hand menu. This should bring up a screen showing all your hard drives. Right click the drive you want to install onto, and click on 'Shrink Volume'. Windows will take a while to calculate the space available and then display a screen showing the size of the hard disk, max space available to shrink by, the amount you want to shrink by, and the amount of space that will be left after shrinking. All of these are in MB (MegaBytes), and 1024MB = 1GB (GigaByte). So, work out how much space you want for your Ubuntu install and enter that in the third box. Click 'Shrink' and wait for Windows to finish. Now you have made some room for your Ubuntu installation.
NOTE: It's not really possible to tell you how much space you need as it depends on what you plan to use your Windows and Ubuntu partitions for, if you plan to have both installed permanently or if you're just trialling Ubuntu, and how much space you have available. However, most new PCs have 100s of GigaBytes available, so you probably won't miss 10 or 20GB. The Ubuntu System Requirements lists 4GB as a minimum and at least 8GB recommended. If you have a very old system with minimal hard drive space, the System Requirements page has some other options for you, such as very minimal installs where a lot of the 'extra' software installed as standard is left out.
Step 5 - Install Ubuntu
To actually install Ubuntu, first stick in your Ubuntu CD, restart your computer and boot from the CD (see Step 3 for more on how to do this). When the menu appears select 'Install Ubuntu' and follow the steps - select your language, time zone, and keyboard layout, before moving on to the 'Prepare Disk Space' menu. At this stage there are a number of options; use the entire disk (which will delete your windows partition and data - so don't do this!), use the largest continuous free space, or specify partitions manually. Using the largest continuous free space is the simplest option and should automatically detect and use the partition you created earlier. However, specifying the partitions manually gives you more control, meaning you can create separate partitions for different parts of the OS and allocate exactly how much space you want to each of them.
If you do manually specify partitions you will have to select the path of the partition (which denotes what it's for) as well as the file system for each (which should be ext3 for all of them except the swap partition). You should create a "/" (or "root") partition as a bare minimum, and also a swap partition. The root partition is for the OS itself and all user files, while the swap partition is there in case you run out of RAM and need some hard drive space to swap the data into temporarily. As a guide the swap partition should be between 1 and 2 times the amount of RAM you have (so if you have 2GB of RAM you probably want 2-4GB swap space). You can also create a "/home" partition, which is a partition specifically for user files - if you do this the "/" partition will just be for the OS and program files, while "/home" will be for all personal files and settings. The advantage of this is that you can easily upgrade the OS without losing your personal settings or files.
This page has some useful advice and diagrams with various ways of partitioning your drives for dual booting a Windows and Linux system, and may also be useful for working out how big various partitions should be.
After the partitioning, the Ubuntu installer will ask for a few more details like your name and desired login details before installing. After installation is complete your computer should automatically reboot, and you should see a new menu appear once the computer starts up - this is the GRUB boot menu. This will ask you to select an OS from a list. After 10 seconds it will load the highlighted OS (by default, Ubuntu). Before doing anything else you should boot into both Windows and Ubuntu and check both are working correctly (once you've booted one, you'll need to restart to boot into the other).
Step 6 (Optional) - Edit / Change the Bootloader
NOTE: As pointed out, this section of the guide only applies to GRUB 1 - the latest version of Ubuntu comes with GRUB 2, so if you have GRUB 2 these instructions won't work!
You may be perfectly happy with the current settings - using the GRUB bootloader and having Ubuntu as the default OS - but you may want to change the default OS or use a different bootloader (such as EasyBCD, which can be easily configured under Vista). I've only dabbled with GRUB, so I'll just be looking at that option here.
You can alter the default OS and the time before booting into the default by editing the GRUB configuration file. In Ubuntu, open a terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal) and type (or copy/paste):
then hit enter. This will load up the configuration file in the gedit text editor (you may be prompted for your password). In this file you will see a line reading "default 0". This defines the default OS. Another line reading "timeout 10" defines the timeout in seconds before loading the default OS. You can change either of these and save the changes. The timeout should be quite self explannatory, while the default OS may require a little more explanation. The number just refers to which OS is the default, counting from 0 upwards - so the first OS that appears in the config file is 0, the next in the config file is 1, etc.
Each OS is listed in the config file with an entry such as:
So simply count the number of these (remembering to start at 0 NOT 1) until you reach the OS you want to be your default and set it to that number. A couple of things to note - any line beginning with a hash character ("#") is a comment so can be ignored (there are some example OS entries which are comments, so you shouldn't be counting these). The other thing to note is there may be a 'divider' operating system which will look something like:
This is simply a 'dummy' OS - it will still show up in the GRUB menu, but it will not boot into anything - however, you still need to count it when working out the number of your default OS. If this sounds too complex, you can easily work out the number by looking at the GRUB boot menu when your system is starting up and counting the entries on that - count each line starting at 0 until you reach the line you want to be the default.
Normally, there will be three Ubuntu options listed (the normal Ubuntu OS, a 'Recovery Mode' version of Ubuntu, and a memtest), a single divider, and the Windows OS, meaning to default into Ubuntu you use 0, and Windows you use 4. It is useful to default to Windows if other people are going to be using the computer, and they want to use Windows (which most people will be more familiar with).
This is fine initially, however Ubuntu will occasionally ask you if you want to upgrade, which can add extra entries to the GRUB menu. If these extra entries go before the Windows entry, the number you worked out will no longer point to the windows entry. You can manually update it each time, or be a little smarter. The additional Ubuntu entries will always get put between the two lines:
By default your Windows entry will be below the '### END...' line. You can move Windows to the top of the list by cutting the Windows entry and pasting it immediately before the '### BEGIN...' line. You may also want to cut and paste the 'dummy' OS entry to separate the Windows and Linux partitions. If you make this change, Windows will be at the top of the GRUB boot menu, and will remain there even if extra Ubuntu entries are added. This means Windows will always be OS number 0, so you'll never need to update the number as long as you want to keep Windows as the default. Your Windows OS entry should look something like:
Getting started in Ubuntu
The desktop in Ubuntu is somewhat similar to that in Windows. At the top of the screen is a taskbar, on the far right is a power icon, clicking on this brings up options such as logoff, restart, shutdown, etc. On the left of the top bar are a number of menus similar to the Windows Start menu - 'Applications' lists your programs (divided into various categories, such as Accessories, Games, Internet, Office, etc.), 'Places' lists useful areas (similar to 'My Documents' on Windows, with short-cuts to your Documents, Music, Pictures, etc. folders) and 'System' has preferences and configuration options (probably most analogous to 'Control Panel' under Windows). Any Windows you open up appear on the bottom task bar, so you can easily minimise and maximise windows.
As standard Ubuntu comes with Firefox for browsing the internet, the Open Office suite which includes a word processor, spreadsheet and the other usual office applications, image editing software, a music player, a video player, and plenty of other bits and pieces. You should be able to find all these without too much problem using the 'Applications' menu.
The easiest way of finding and installing new software is the Ubuntu Software Centre (Applications -> Ubuntu Software Centre). Here you can search for software if you know what you're looking for, or simply browse the available categories, downloading and installing the free software with a few clicks. You can also get help in Ubuntu by clicking the blue question mark icon to the right of the 'System' menu on the top taskbar. Of course you can also search online for help.
Anyway, hopefully that's been informative (and maybe even useful) for anyone who's interested in taking a look at Linux. If anyone does give it a go, let us know what your experiences are. I've been dual-booted for about a month now, using Windows mainly for games and Ubuntu for most other things. I'm planning to start running some older games in Ubuntu using WINE (which acts as a layer between Windows apps and Linux), and at some point do a bit of web programming, as well as just getting a bit more familiar with the Linux environment and commands. I also have a Windows 7 upgrade option, so who knows, at some point I may be tri-booting!
Linux is an operating system, like Microsoft's Windows or Mac's OS X - the operating system (or OS) basically acts as a go-between for your computer hardware and the applications you run on it, like your web browser, office suite, videogames, etc. However, unlike the other operating systems I mentioned above, Linux is free and Open-Source. What does this mean? Well, distributions of Linux can be downloaded and used freely, and you can even download the source code and make changes to it if you wish. In fact, this is one reason why Linux has become so popular - being free and Open Source means there is a whole community out there supporting it and making improvements to it.
Probably the most popular Linux distribution, and the one we'll be looking at today, is Ubuntu.
Why bother with Linux/Ubuntu?
The first thing you may be wondering is why you would want to install another operating system at all. You have your Windows Vista and it works, so why bother with something else at all?
First up it's free. Secondly, compared to Vista, Ubuntu takes up far less in terms of system resources (hard-drive space, RAM, CPU). Now, since we're looking at Dual-Booting this will mean you'll keep your Windows installation which you likely already paid for or had bundled with your hardware, so you may not see the advantage here. But in the future you may want some new hardware, and saving the cost of a Windows license may be appealing - especially if you have a free alternative that you have first hand experience with. Ubuntu also comes pre-installed with a bunch of free software, such as Open Office (basically an Open Source version of Microsoft's Office Suite - it can even open and edit documents created with MS Office), Mozilla Firefox (for all your web-browsing needs), an Email Client, an Instant Messenger, CD burning software... The list goes on, and if it's not pre-installed, you can probably download and install it for free using the Ubuntu Software Centre - this is a bit like Windows Add/Remove Programs, but everything is neatly divided into sections (Accessories, Games, Office, Internet, System Tools, etc.) and everything in the list can be downloaded and installed at the click of a button for free, putting a vast assortment of software at your fingertips.
But aside from price, what are the other benefits? Well, Ubuntu can also be installed on older hardware, since it doesn't have the high-spec requirements of Windows Vista (or Windows 7). It's also good for people interested in software development and computing in general (which is why it may be of interest to people here), with lots of tools and commands useful for programmers and those developing websites. Another benefit of Dual Booting is that you're going to keep that Windows installation already on your computer, including all the files, applications and everything else you have - Dual Booting means when you start up your computer you choose either Windows or Ubuntu, and simply restart if you need the other, which is great for getting a feel for a new OS. You can even run Ubuntu from a CD, meaning you don't actually have to install anything to give it a go!
NOTE: If you don't have a CD writer or you're unable to download large files you can request to be sent an Ubuntu CD - Click Here - and skip steps 1 & 2.
Step 1 - Download Ubuntu
Click Here to go to the Ubuntu download page. Select your country from the location drop down. If you have 32 bit hardware (or don't know) just click the big green "Begin download" button to grab the latest version of Ubuntu. If you know you have a 64 bit CPU, click the "Alternative download options..." link and select the "64-bit version" option before starting the download. This will start downloading a .iso file, which is an image that can be burnt onto a CD - essentially you're downloading some data that needs to be put onto a CD to be read by your computers CD drive.
Step 2 - Burn an Ubuntu CD
You may well already have some CD burning software, if so just fire it up and burn the .iso file you downloaded onto a CD. If not, find some free software to do the job, such as InfraRecorder.
NOTE: When burning the CD you need to be burning the image of the .iso onto the CD rather than just copying the .iso file onto the CD. Once you have burnt the CD you should be able to open the CD in Windows and see files and folders rather than a single .iso file on the CD. If this isn't clear, Click Here for more help, or seek help for your CD burning software on how to burn .iso files onto a CD.
Step 3 (Optional) - Try before you Buy
Once you've got your CD you may want to forge ahead and install Ubuntu, or you may want to give it a try before installing. If you're feeling cautious, stick in the Ubuntu CD, then restart your PC. Depending on how your PC Is configured it may boot from the CD automatically, or it may prompt you to press a particular key if you want to boot from the CD, so you have to pay attention (it's often the delete key or one of the 'F' keys, like F12). Once you're booting from the CD, you should see a language menu. Select your language, and you'll see the main CD menu - select the 'Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer' option, and the Ubuntu OS will start up ready for you to have a play!
If you need some help at this point scroll down to the 'Getting started in Ubuntu' section for a quick overview of the desktop in Ubuntu.
Step 4 - Make Some Room
Since Ubuntu is a separate OS, it's not like installing a new videogame or office application. Usually you just install software on you hard drive, not worrying about where it's going to go as long as there's space. But Windows and Ubuntu need to keep their files separate, which requires you to partition your hard drive. Don't worry, it's not permanent and it doesn't do anything bad to your hard drive, it's simply creating separate sections of the hard drive so Windows and Ubuntu know where they can put files without stepping on each others toes.
Before actually partitioning your drive you may want to defragment your disk (Start Menu -> Computer -> Right Click your hard drive -> Properties -> Select 'Tools' tab -> Defragment Now). Doing this may give you a larger block of continuous space on your hard-drive, meaning you can create a larger partition.
To create your new partition in Windows go into the Computer Management screen (Start Menu -> Right Click on Computer -> Manage) and then click on the 'Disk Management' option in the left hand menu. This should bring up a screen showing all your hard drives. Right click the drive you want to install onto, and click on 'Shrink Volume'. Windows will take a while to calculate the space available and then display a screen showing the size of the hard disk, max space available to shrink by, the amount you want to shrink by, and the amount of space that will be left after shrinking. All of these are in MB (MegaBytes), and 1024MB = 1GB (GigaByte). So, work out how much space you want for your Ubuntu install and enter that in the third box. Click 'Shrink' and wait for Windows to finish. Now you have made some room for your Ubuntu installation.
NOTE: It's not really possible to tell you how much space you need as it depends on what you plan to use your Windows and Ubuntu partitions for, if you plan to have both installed permanently or if you're just trialling Ubuntu, and how much space you have available. However, most new PCs have 100s of GigaBytes available, so you probably won't miss 10 or 20GB. The Ubuntu System Requirements lists 4GB as a minimum and at least 8GB recommended. If you have a very old system with minimal hard drive space, the System Requirements page has some other options for you, such as very minimal installs where a lot of the 'extra' software installed as standard is left out.
Step 5 - Install Ubuntu
To actually install Ubuntu, first stick in your Ubuntu CD, restart your computer and boot from the CD (see Step 3 for more on how to do this). When the menu appears select 'Install Ubuntu' and follow the steps - select your language, time zone, and keyboard layout, before moving on to the 'Prepare Disk Space' menu. At this stage there are a number of options; use the entire disk (which will delete your windows partition and data - so don't do this!), use the largest continuous free space, or specify partitions manually. Using the largest continuous free space is the simplest option and should automatically detect and use the partition you created earlier. However, specifying the partitions manually gives you more control, meaning you can create separate partitions for different parts of the OS and allocate exactly how much space you want to each of them.
If you do manually specify partitions you will have to select the path of the partition (which denotes what it's for) as well as the file system for each (which should be ext3 for all of them except the swap partition). You should create a "/" (or "root") partition as a bare minimum, and also a swap partition. The root partition is for the OS itself and all user files, while the swap partition is there in case you run out of RAM and need some hard drive space to swap the data into temporarily. As a guide the swap partition should be between 1 and 2 times the amount of RAM you have (so if you have 2GB of RAM you probably want 2-4GB swap space). You can also create a "/home" partition, which is a partition specifically for user files - if you do this the "/" partition will just be for the OS and program files, while "/home" will be for all personal files and settings. The advantage of this is that you can easily upgrade the OS without losing your personal settings or files.
This page has some useful advice and diagrams with various ways of partitioning your drives for dual booting a Windows and Linux system, and may also be useful for working out how big various partitions should be.
After the partitioning, the Ubuntu installer will ask for a few more details like your name and desired login details before installing. After installation is complete your computer should automatically reboot, and you should see a new menu appear once the computer starts up - this is the GRUB boot menu. This will ask you to select an OS from a list. After 10 seconds it will load the highlighted OS (by default, Ubuntu). Before doing anything else you should boot into both Windows and Ubuntu and check both are working correctly (once you've booted one, you'll need to restart to boot into the other).
Step 6 (Optional) - Edit / Change the Bootloader
NOTE: As pointed out, this section of the guide only applies to GRUB 1 - the latest version of Ubuntu comes with GRUB 2, so if you have GRUB 2 these instructions won't work!
You may be perfectly happy with the current settings - using the GRUB bootloader and having Ubuntu as the default OS - but you may want to change the default OS or use a different bootloader (such as EasyBCD, which can be easily configured under Vista). I've only dabbled with GRUB, so I'll just be looking at that option here.
You can alter the default OS and the time before booting into the default by editing the GRUB configuration file. In Ubuntu, open a terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal) and type (or copy/paste):
sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lstthen hit enter. This will load up the configuration file in the gedit text editor (you may be prompted for your password). In this file you will see a line reading "default 0". This defines the default OS. Another line reading "timeout 10" defines the timeout in seconds before loading the default OS. You can change either of these and save the changes. The timeout should be quite self explannatory, while the default OS may require a little more explanation. The number just refers to which OS is the default, counting from 0 upwards - so the first OS that appears in the config file is 0, the next in the config file is 1, etc.
Each OS is listed in the config file with an entry such as:
title Ubuntu 9.10, kernel 2.6.31-15-generic
uuid 2f0c25ad-7e61-4168-b57c-cf8ee40fc854
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-15-generic root=UUID=2f0c25ad-7e61-4168-b57c-cf8ee40fc854 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-15-generic
quietSo simply count the number of these (remembering to start at 0 NOT 1) until you reach the OS you want to be your default and set it to that number. A couple of things to note - any line beginning with a hash character ("#") is a comment so can be ignored (there are some example OS entries which are comments, so you shouldn't be counting these). The other thing to note is there may be a 'divider' operating system which will look something like:
# This is a divider
title Other operating systems:
rootThis is simply a 'dummy' OS - it will still show up in the GRUB menu, but it will not boot into anything - however, you still need to count it when working out the number of your default OS. If this sounds too complex, you can easily work out the number by looking at the GRUB boot menu when your system is starting up and counting the entries on that - count each line starting at 0 until you reach the line you want to be the default.
Normally, there will be three Ubuntu options listed (the normal Ubuntu OS, a 'Recovery Mode' version of Ubuntu, and a memtest), a single divider, and the Windows OS, meaning to default into Ubuntu you use 0, and Windows you use 4. It is useful to default to Windows if other people are going to be using the computer, and they want to use Windows (which most people will be more familiar with).
This is fine initially, however Ubuntu will occasionally ask you if you want to upgrade, which can add extra entries to the GRUB menu. If these extra entries go before the Windows entry, the number you worked out will no longer point to the windows entry. You can manually update it each time, or be a little smarter. The additional Ubuntu entries will always get put between the two lines:
### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
...
### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LISTBy default your Windows entry will be below the '### END...' line. You can move Windows to the top of the list by cutting the Windows entry and pasting it immediately before the '### BEGIN...' line. You may also want to cut and paste the 'dummy' OS entry to separate the Windows and Linux partitions. If you make this change, Windows will be at the top of the GRUB boot menu, and will remain there even if extra Ubuntu entries are added. This means Windows will always be OS number 0, so you'll never need to update the number as long as you want to keep Windows as the default. Your Windows OS entry should look something like:
# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title Windows Vista (loader)
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1Getting started in Ubuntu
The desktop in Ubuntu is somewhat similar to that in Windows. At the top of the screen is a taskbar, on the far right is a power icon, clicking on this brings up options such as logoff, restart, shutdown, etc. On the left of the top bar are a number of menus similar to the Windows Start menu - 'Applications' lists your programs (divided into various categories, such as Accessories, Games, Internet, Office, etc.), 'Places' lists useful areas (similar to 'My Documents' on Windows, with short-cuts to your Documents, Music, Pictures, etc. folders) and 'System' has preferences and configuration options (probably most analogous to 'Control Panel' under Windows). Any Windows you open up appear on the bottom task bar, so you can easily minimise and maximise windows.
As standard Ubuntu comes with Firefox for browsing the internet, the Open Office suite which includes a word processor, spreadsheet and the other usual office applications, image editing software, a music player, a video player, and plenty of other bits and pieces. You should be able to find all these without too much problem using the 'Applications' menu.
The easiest way of finding and installing new software is the Ubuntu Software Centre (Applications -> Ubuntu Software Centre). Here you can search for software if you know what you're looking for, or simply browse the available categories, downloading and installing the free software with a few clicks. You can also get help in Ubuntu by clicking the blue question mark icon to the right of the 'System' menu on the top taskbar. Of course you can also search online for help.
Anyway, hopefully that's been informative (and maybe even useful) for anyone who's interested in taking a look at Linux. If anyone does give it a go, let us know what your experiences are. I've been dual-booted for about a month now, using Windows mainly for games and Ubuntu for most other things. I'm planning to start running some older games in Ubuntu using WINE (which acts as a layer between Windows apps and Linux), and at some point do a bit of web programming, as well as just getting a bit more familiar with the Linux environment and commands. I also have a Windows 7 upgrade option, so who knows, at some point I may be tri-booting!