Today we're going to take a look at Linux, the free operating system for your computer that will allow you to have a functioning machine without the expense of buying a new computer or updating to the latest Microsoft Windows version.
You may have heard about Linux years ago, along with such comments as: "It's too hard to use." Or "You have to know programming to use it." Or "Linux is for geeks and nerds who live in their mom's basement."
And I will confess, 15 years ago those kind of comments were mostly true. It WAS hard to install, use, or maintain. But perhaps for that very reason, ( Thank you to all Linux Geeks and Nerds :-) ) almost all of those issues are no more. Today Linux has been tweaked by countless intelligent, giving people, who have made it into an operating system that I am convinced can be used by anyone with a desire to have a working computer.
Modern Linux can be installed on on almost ANY computer - laptop or desktop. Older machines with slower processors and less memory can work almost as if they were new. New machines with fast processors and massive amounts of memory can do even more.
Lets look at requirements. What do you need to get started?
- A working computer - It doesn't have to be a super computer, but it DOES need to function. By that I mean it powers on, shows something on the monitor, has memory installed and a drive of some sort to load the system onto. There are a lot of people who recommend minimum specs for a machine, and obviously, the better the machine, the better it will run with ANY operating system. But Linux is pretty tolerant of a wide variety of hardware specs, and you can get a version for just about ANY specs out in the world.
For instance, some years ago in one of my restaurants all I had available was an old Pentium 486 built in the early 90s. I think it had 256 MB of memory, and i put a huge hard drive of 2 GB in it. In case that means nothing to you - my phone has vastly superior specs. But guess what? That's right - I loaded a Linux distribution that didn't need a lot, and was able to use it successfully to do the things needed there.
Right now, I am using an EEE-PC 900A netbook with 1GB of memory and a 16GB SD card as the hard drive to run a slide presentation of the daily specials, discounts, food trivia, and other info for customers. Due to the layout of this restaurant, the PC has to remain in the kitchen, while the 42 inch display is on the wall in the dining area. It fits the bill perfectly because it is a tiny machine not even noticed by the kitchen staff. I control it using a remote desktop with wifi from the laptop I'm typing on right now.
In this same restaurant I also have a older Compaq laptop which i acquired with Windows 7 installed on it. The processor in it is mid-range, it has 2 GB of memory, and a decent size hard drive. The staff here use it to do various things like updating our Facebook page and checking prices on inventory. They use it to watch training videos and even play games on it from time to time. It would run Windows 7 but took almost 5 minutes to completely start up, and was slow to load programs. I ended up wiping the Windows off it completely and installing Linux Any haven't had any complaints from the staff since.
The machine I am typing on now is an Intel i7 with 8 GB RAM and a 1 TB hard drive. I just purchased it 2 weeks ago and it came with Windows 10 pre-installed. I actually like Windows 10 in many ways (it is my 3rd Win 10 machine), but the day I brought it home, the first thing I did was re-partition the hard drive, and install Linux as a dual boot. After making sure both Windows and Linux would run properly, I booted into Linux and have not returned to Windows since.
One last example: The laptop I am holding in the picture below was brought to me by a homeless man I know ( great guy, just down on his luck right now). He found it in a dumpster, complete with the charger and thought he might be able to use it to watch movies if it would work. When he turned it on the screen came on, but it said there was no operating system. Of course, he couldn't afford to buy Windows for it, and being an honest guy he didn't want to "steal" a copy, so he brought it to me asking if there was anything I could do to help him. As you can see, once again Linux saved the day.
- An internet connection to download the Linux disk image. It could potentially be a LARGE file (>1+ GB ) What that means is you'll have to have a way to download the files needed to install. If you don't have a working computer now, you'll need a friend with one, or maybe you can even go to the public library to download the file you need.
- Along with that you'll need something to store the file you download on. I recommend a USB flash drive, although for old computers booting from a CD or DVD may be the only option available. We'll discuss that in an upcoming how-to.
- An hour or two to perform all the steps to start enjoying your new computer.
In a broad sense, that is all you need to begin your journey. In the next post I'll have a video demonstration about how to download and get ready to install, as well as a brief discussion on how to pick the best version of Linux for your needs. (Yes - there are an excessive number to choose from, but we'll try to narrow it down to make it easier)
