Help - complete Linux newbie

[Joel Bryan Juliano]

On Nov 29, 2007 12:23 PM, Hal Davis <lawyer07 at civdiv.com> wrote:
> Read the PCMag article on Linux, and decided to download Ubuntu, because
> they said it was good for newbies, and it came with a reliable partition
> utility so I could make my laptop into a dual-boot device.
>
> Completed the 20-minute download, and I now have a 700 MB .iso file on
> my Windows desktop. Trouble is, I try double-clicking on the file and
> nothing happens. I get a message about an external file needing to be
> opened, and I tell it, sure, whatever, and nothing happens.
>
> How do I make the magic happen?
>
> Hal Davis
>

.ISO's are a complete copy of a CD, DVD or any optical media that is
made as files. (Which is called images)
Windows XP doesn't have a included application to open it, so you'll have to.

1. Download an ISO burning application, many of them had been discussed here.
2. Open those files using those application, and burn it in a CD.

The next thing you need to do is prepare your computer to boot the burned CD.

3. Go to your BIOS setup, usually by pressing (DEL), then change the
boot order to boot CD/DVD drives first.
4. Complete the easy-to-use installation process.

Hope this helps! Enjoy!