Ubuntu 6.06 LTS

[Peter Garrett]

On Sun, 20 Aug 2006 20:11:07 +1000
Dennis Lawrence <dennisl at australiamail.com> wrote:

Hi Dennis - see interspersed remarks below ( and welcome to Ubuntu ! )
 
> I am brand new to Ubuntu, know nothing about Linux, I got a copy of 
> Ubuntu 6.06 LTS with my September issue of PC World and I would like to 
> install it, but I don't know how and I can't seem to find the 
> information that I need, if fact I am scared stiff that I am going to 
> stuff up my system, so I do need help..

OK - This URL should help:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation

If you have a .iso file from a DVD, it will need to be burned to a CD as
an image - that page above has a link to to instructions for doing this
under windows, if you don't know about it. 

Other resources you might want to browse

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UserDocumentation  <-- this is the
gateway to the wiki, which has huge amounts of useful info and howtos

If you have an nVidia or ATI card you might want to read

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto

> 
> First of all let me tell you about my system and that may help you to 
> help me. I am running  a Athlon AMD 64 system 3700+ 2.21 GHz with 1 GB 
> ram. I have 2 x 200GB hard drives. The OS is XP Home (which I am fed up 
> with)

Know the feeling ;-) Your system sounds excellent, and should work really
well with Ubuntu - provided that you don't have any hardware that is
incompatible. Usually that means things like internal windows-only dialup
modems, certain scanners and printers and a few other things. You can look
at

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupport    for more information. (Most
hardware works fine though)

Note that although there is a 64 bit version of Ubuntu, the "386" 32 bit
standard version works fine on AMD 64, and will be easier to set up -
particularly for multimedia. This is probably what you want to start
with at least. For info on mp3, video, etc I strongly suggest reading and
following

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats

which will help you to set up formats that require "non-free" patent
encumbered codecs etc which Ubuntu cannot legally distribute on the
install CD. ( That's "non-free as in Freedom" by the way - none of this
needs to cost anything )

Generally, Ubuntu finds just about everything and works out
of the box, but things like graphics cards and various windows-only bits
and pieces sometimes cause issues, mostly because the specs have not been
released by manufacturers so that Free and Open Source drivers can be
written. There's plenty of help available if you need it though.
> 
> First off  is it possible to run Ubuntu as a dual boot system with XP 
> until I get comfortable with it ? if so is there any information 
> available that will take me through the process step by step ?.

Yes, very possible - in fact the installer gives you the option to use
free space and keep Windows as dual boot. You should make sure you
de-fragment your Windows drive before proceeding with the Ubuntu install,
and make a note of the amount of space you have so you can tell the
installer how much to use. 

Note that windows should preferably be on the first partition of your
"master" drive - which in Linux-speak is designated /dev/hda1
( or /dev/sda1 depending on the kind of drive). This will make your life
easier, as windows doesn't like to boot from elsewhere... The installer
will find your windows install and add it to the boot loader. You then get
a menu at boot to choose Ubuntu or windows.

Feel free to ask any other questions. i hope that this helps to point you
in the right direction. By the way, you don't need to digest all the info
above in one hit ;-) Installing Ubuntu is really *very* easy - nothing to
be too stressed over - but if you need clarification the community is
always there via mail , IRC, or the wiki and documentation.

Peter