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oving right along here towards installing Linux… we have to pause to consider which method we’ll use. Much of this may be determined by the type of computer and internet access you have.

1. You can download a wide variety of choices in Linux systems, and if you have a CD burner, you can burn the CD or DVD, and then use that for your installation.

2. If yours is an older computer and doesn’t have all these features, then you can buy a installation CD and use that. This turns out to be the most popular way to do it. Even if you don’t have a full installation CD, you might get a LIVE CD that has just enough on it to go online and fetch the rest of the files as the installer program needs them. It takes longer that way, but if your line is steady, you can do that.

3. It is possible to download and make a bootable floppy diskette. If you have the computer connected to go online, that will allow you to get the installer program started, and it too, will go fetch the rest of the files from online.

The one note I’d add to both 2 and 3, is that you need to have a list of exact URLs ready to tell the installer where to go to get the files. When I tried it, I had only one URL and it wasn’t working, and I had no way of trying others because I hadn’t prepared such a list. It meant I had to crash everything, go back online and find that list of URLs first.

Now, if you wish to have both MS Windows and a Linux system on the same computer so you can make the transition more gradually, that is possible. I’ve done that too. It’s called dual-booting, or mutli-booting. But you need to know a few points before you start.

MS Windows will NOT cooperate on the same hard drive if it is not installed first. If you already have it on the hard drive, and if there is enough free space on the hard drive, some Linux systems will just install themselves on the free section. BUT you should make a thorough back up of everything in your Windows system in case you make a mistake in the partitioning stage, and accidentally wipe out all your Windows system. I’ve had that happen too!

Most die-hard Linux fans will try to discourage you from dual-booting with Windows. Most people trade in their old car when buying a new one, they don’t keep the old one and drive it some days to make the transition gradually.

It can happen that you have some Windows-only Program with a lot of data that you are not ready to handle from some unknown program. Maybe Quicken with all your financial records, or Brother’s Keeper with all your genealogy databases? In that case a dual boot is a good idea, especially if you haven’t got two separate computers.

Even then, it would be best to have the Windows system on one drive, and your new Linux on another, or a virtual drive, while on the same computer. We’ll mention this again when we get to the partitioning lesson.

For now, if you’ve decided on the method and whether you will go for a dual boot or straight Linux, then it is time to access your BIOS (or CMOS on the older computers) and make a simple little change to tell the computer to look on the CD (or floppy) drive for the booting information.

When you power up, or re-boot your computer, you see this line at the bottom that says, “Press DEL to enter setup”. Quickly, before it is gone, click on the DEL key in the numeric pad on your keyboard. You will move about the menus here with your Tab and arrow keys. Click to enter the Bios Features Setup. Then find the menu item that says “Boot Sequence.” With your + and - keys on the numeric pad, you can cause the CD drive, or the floppy drive, if that’s what you’re going to use, to shift to the top of the list. That’s all you need to accomplish. Navigate to the “Save and Exit” button, and click that. (Very often that’s F10).

Now put the installation disk into the drive, if you haven’t already, and reboot the computer.

Brrr! the boot disk will come alive. Now hang on - the installation ride starts!