Installation Methods:

• Buy a book! (Most come with a distribution).

• Download the needed files, create a boot and root disk and read online! (See the “Linux Support” section at the end of this document).

• Get hold of a distribution CD and boot from it (change your bios to boot from the CD if needed).

• Use a bootable Linux distribution (covered later).

If you have access to a bootable installation CDROM (download an ISO image and burn it on a CDR, buy a book that includes a CD set, etc.), then this process will be easier. Much of the work is done for you, and relatively safe defaults are provided. As mentioned earlier, hardware detection has gone through some great improvements in the last year or two. I strongly believe that Red Hat or Mandrake Linux are far easier and faster to install than Windows 2000. Typical Linux installation is well documented online (check the “how-tos” at the LinuxDocumentation Project:http://www.tldp.org/). There are numerous books available on the subject, and as previously mentioned most of these are supplied with a Linux distribution ready for install.

Bootable ISO’s can downloaded fromhttp://www.linuxiso.org/and burned to a CD. Familiarize yourself with Linux disk and partition naming conventions (covered in Chapter II of this document) and you should be ready to start.