Making the decision - needs, wants and compromises?

There are lots of different 'kinds' of Linux with different features, functions and appearance. This is because people take the basic Linux system and 'package' it together with hardware drivers, desktops and useful software. This kind of 'packaged' Linux is called a 'distro'. You can find listings, news and reviews of distros at DistroWatch

This workshop deals only with the Ubuntu Linux distro. The reason for this is that Ubuntu is designed to be very easy for beginners and non-techies to install and use. It has commercial backing which enables it to develop fast and offer an excellent range of features but it also has very strong ethical policies. You can find out more about the Ubuntu Community here.

Basic audit:

• Make a note of the specifications of your computer (look in Control Panel -> System to find out your what your processor, RAM and operating system are).
• The quickest way of getting an overview of your system is to install Belarc Advisor, run it and print off the output. If you don't want to do this, go to your Windows Device Manager and make a list of your hardware. If you put your computer's model and the word 'specification' into Google you may hit lucky and fnd a nice, tidy spec of your system and hardware — print it! Don't wipe your hard drive without having a clue what your system is — you also need a note of your Windows and any other product keys in case you want to put your Windows system back on. Belarc Advisor will record product keys or you can find small applications which will find your Windows and MS Office product keys. You can also retrieve them from the registry but I wouldn't try this if you don't know what you're doing.
• Don't forget your peripheral devices which are not always attached (USB drives, cameras, mp3 players, printers etc) — do you have drivers for these in case you change your mind and want to put Windows back on? Do they have Linux drivers? To find out whether they will work well with Linux, type the product's model number into Google with the world 'linux' — you will usually be able to find something out. See under 'hardware' below for more information.
• Make a note of your screen resolution (control panel -> display -> settings) — you might need to know this. Ubuntu will install most screens corectly but you might need this info if you do encounter problems
• Make a list of the software you really need (again, Belarc Advisor will record what you have installed)
• Download Ubuntu and make an Ubuntu CD (if you don't have CD Burning software, you can use CDburnerXP Pro, a reliable free application which can do this (follow these instructions for burning DBAN with CDburnerXP Pro, burning Ubuntu will be the same)
• Run the Ubuntu live CD — is everything (important) working? Make a list of what obviously isn't working. Is there anything whichi would be a deal-breaker that can't be fixed?
• Make a list of important data and customisations (scripts, macros, mailboxes, addressbooks etc) and make sure your files and folders are sensibly organised in one place. VB scripts often don't run on OOo — is this a deal-breaker?

Decision time:

Be clear about your needs, what will or won't work with Ubuntu, and what compromises you're prepared to make:

• There are sites which will help you find out how well different hardware products will work with Linux — LinuxQuestions Hardware List is a very good place to start. Laptop owners can read about other people's experience of installing different Linux distros at Linux on Laptops. There is also an Ubuntu Laptop Testing Team who give detailed information about installing Ubuntu on different laptops
• Research Ubuntu alternatives to your 'must have' software. There's a quickref guide to popular Linux software ('packages') here. You'll find a complete list of Ubuntu software here (make sure you've got the right page for your Ubuntu version)
• Check the minimum requirement for the Linux system you want to install. Ubuntu system requirements here. Xubuntu system requirements here. Compare with your system specification. Will your computer run Ubuntu or will you need the 'lighter' Xubuntu version?
• You can usually find instructions to work out how to export/convert your data (mailboxes, addressbooks, bookmarks etc) by using a search engine. Ubuntu's most popular email applications (Evolution and Thunderbird) will import automatically from Outlook.

If everything will work and you're ready to go:

• Do you want to do a clean install of Ubuntu/Xubuntu and move entirely to Linux in one step?
• Would you rather take it in stages and consider dual booting or Wubi?

If you've got important hardware that won't work or software/scripts that you can't import or find alternatives for — but you still want to move towards free software:

• You could consider dual booting. LinuxDevCenter gives illustrated, step-by-step instructions on how to dual-boot Windows and Ubuntu
• If dual-booting is a bit too techie for you, try Wubi. You just download Wubi, burn it to CD, insert the Wubi CD whilst Windows is running and Wubi will offer you 4 different types of Ubuntu installation. Wubi installs to a file on your Windows drive without touching your existing Windows installation and creates a boot menu so you can choose whether to load Windows or Ubuntu at startup.
• For software or games which don't have Linux alternatives, WINE is 'compatibility layer' which lets you run many Windows applications on Linux
• Wireless cards can be hard to install on Linux. NDISwrapper can often be used to run the Windows driver on Linux

If you decide to stay exclusively with Windows for the time being:

• You could start building gradually towards making the change by using free/libre cross-platform applications on Windows. You can find a list of free software alternatives which will run on Windows here, another very good list of windows free software here, or find a good selection on the OpenCD which you can either download free or order on CD for a minimal fee

Making the move - installation

Eclectic Tech Carnival installation workshop outline and notes

The workshop is at basic level for women who want to migrate from Windows to Ubuntu Desktop. It will include:

• How to backup and check system information from your existing Windows installation
• Why Ubuntu?
• What are the different 'flavours' of Ubuntu and which one should I choose?
• Downloading, burning and running the Ubuntu live CD
• Simple clean graphical install of Ubuntu
• Cleaning up and re-partitioning HD for dual-boot installation with gparted tool
• Dual-boot installation of Ubuntu alongside existing Windows system
• Wubi installation on Windows

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Self-help notes

Preinstallation checklist:

• Backup your Windows data and settings
• Check that you have an Ubuntu CD and that it works. If you don't have a disk, you will find instructions on how to make an Ubuntu CD here.
• Check that your PC meets the system requirements for the version of Ubuntu you intend to install. Ubuntu system requirements. Xubuntu system requirements. If you've no idea what your system information is, there's a YouTube tutorial here
• Check that you have enough free space on the harddrive you are installing Ubuntu to (right-click on C: in Windows explorer -> properties
• Check that you have printed off any instructions you might need to refer to (unless you have another PC you can use to access them online)
• If you can run the Ubuntu live CD, check that you can connect to the internet OK using Ubuntu and that at least the basics are working
• Check that you have a list of your system hardware in case of problems
• Decide whether you're doing a clean install or dual-booting
• Take a deep breath . . .

Booting Ubuntu as a live demo:

1. Insert the Ubuntu CD
2. Restart the computer
3. Boot from the CD — different computers do this in different ways:
   • PCs built before 1998 don't boot from CD (you can still install Linux but not from a live CD)
   • Newer (XP and later) computers have a 'temporary boot menu' — press f12 as soon as the PC begins to boot and select 'CD' or 'IDE CDRom' (or similar) from the menu which appears (you might have to try a few times, it's easy to miss your chance)
   • On some PCs you may need to edit the BIOS — to do this, watch the screen as you turn on your PC and it will tell you which key to press to enter 'setup' or 'BIOS'. The key is often F12, F2, F8 or the 'delete' key. It should give you onscreen instructions (different computers have different BIOS setups so it's not possible to give overall instructions here) — if you're totally at sea, you might find this illustrated BIOS tutorial helpful
4. Ubuntu will boot into live mode. This means the Ubuntu operating system will run from CD and/or RAM without affecting your Windows installation at all. If you do not install Ubuntu, when you shut down the live demo and remove the Ubuntu disk, your computer will boot normally into Windows again.

Clean installation from live demo

This is by far the easiest option for a beginner as Ubuntu will automate the process and you will need minimal technical skills. Any reasonably experienced Windows user can do this easily.

• Boot from your Ubuntu CD
• Double-click on the 'install' icon on the desktop
• Follow Ubuntu's onscreen instructions (point-and-click) and always accept its recommendations if you're not sure
• Allow Ubuntu to partition your drive automatically (unless you feel confident enough to use the manual partitioning tool) — make sure you've backed up your data first!
• After you've installed Ubuntu, copy over your backups and import mailboxes, bookmarks, profiles etc from your backups.

Dual-boot installation

This is a bit harder than a clean install but Ubuntu makes it fairly easy. Follow LinuxDevCenter's excellent illustrated guide to a dual-boot installation of Ubuntu with pre-existing Windows installation

Installing Ubuntu so it will run from a USB stick

• You can install Ubuntu to a USB stick and store your changes and data to the stick. This will leave no trace of your session on the PC or laptop which you used. The PC will need to be capable of booting from USB (if it does not, see the instructions on editing the BIOS boot settings above).
• Installing to bootable USB on an encrypted partition is a bit trickier but this tutorial shows you the exact steps. If you're not sure you can do it without accidentally wiping your HD, make sure you understand what fdisk does beforehand.

Making the move - finding your way around

Quick overview of the Ubuntu desktop for Windows migrants

You've installed Ubuntu — now make yourself at home! Ubuntu desktop is blissfully simple. On the bar along the top, you will see three words:

• Applications: provides access to your software packages organised by category
• Places: gives you quick access to local and network locations through a file manager (like Windows Explorer) called 'Nautilus'
• System: opens preferences and administration menus. From here, you can play with the appearance of your desktop and manage everything from menubars to software, printers, networking etc through GUI (visual point-and-click) interfaces

Here are some other familiar features:

• Help is reached by clicking the blue ? icon on the bottom bar
• Your taskbar and system tray are pretty much where you'd expect
• You have a 'show the desktop' icon and a wastebin — again much like Windows

The Ubuntu desktop is highly configurable. One of the great things about Linux is the design of menus — everything you want is usually no more than 3 clicks deep and all your options will usually drop down in a single tree so that you can set all your preferences in one place rather than fiddling with endless tabs under different (and often highly improbable) menu headings. This makes Ubuntu very quick and intuitive to learn.

• The desktop toolbars (called panels in Ubuntu) are configurable — you can put them where you want and add/remove anything from them, including the system tray and taskbar, change their colour, dimensions etc. But this isn't done the same way as in Windows. Right click on the panel you want to change and follow your nose — a reasonably experienced Windows user will find it easy to pick up.
• Right-click on the desktop (or use the menu -> System -> Themes) to change the appearance of your desktop. Themes are much more flexible as you can mix and match features from different standard themes as well as importing new ones.
• Important tip for Windows users: Linux applications usually have their 'options' or 'preference' interfaces under the 'edit' menu rather than the 'tools' menu as is usual on Windows

Ubuntu can be used and managed entirely through point-and-click GUIs, but if you want more control, you might also want to learn about using the Linux commandline.

Ubuntu's file structure

You can find out more about Ubuntu's file structure here.

Making the move - software packages

Which software to use for what and how to install it is another big headache when migrating from Windows to Ubuntu.

Ubuntu comes pre-installed with the basics for office users:

• Open Office is the free Office suite including word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and database applications. All the applications in the Open Office suite will import data from their Windows equivalents (but won't always import scripts, macros, queries etc)
• Evolution is the PIM (email, calendar and contacts applications). It will import data (mails, addressbooks, calendars) from Outlook.
• Firefox is Ubuntu's default browser — you might already be using this on Windows. It'll import your bookmarks from MSIE or you can copy over your entire profile if you're already using Firefox on Windows.
• There are also some basic image and pdf viewers, TWAIN, media player, an instant messager, and some accessories.

This probably isn't going to be enough for everyone — especially home users. You might also want HTML editing packages, more versatile media players, VoIP and chat, desktop search, and fun toys like GoogleEarth.

Before looking at what software you might like to install. It's important to note that Ubuntu does not install software in the same way as Windows but you can still use GUI to install software.

Installing software on Ubuntu

Ubuntu offers you a choice of several different ways to install software:

• Ubuntu calls a piece of software a package. Information and instructions are called 'documentation'.
• In order to prevent beginners from installing potentially destructive software, Ubuntu keeps 'repositories' of 'approved' software packages which are tried and tested. Ubuntu includes a GUI 'package manager' called Synaptic so the user can install these packages easily. Illustrated tutorial on using Synaptic
• Ubuntu is based on another Linux 'distro' called Debian. Debian's commandline package manager, apt-get, is also included in Ubuntu so you can manage your software on a commandline if you prefer. How to use apt-get. It's good to learn as it's very quick and easy once you learn it.
• If there isn't an Ubuntu package available you can also install packages built for Debian onto your Ubuntu system. Debian packages are called 'debs'. Ubuntu comes with a GUI deb installer. Download the deb file (it will have a .deb extension and will be labelled on download sites as the right software for Debian), right click on the downloaded file and select 'open with GDebi package installer' to start the automatic installation dialogue.
• Ubuntu has another, older, package manager called dpkg. You'll find a guide to using dpkg here
• If you absolutely positively can't find an Ubuntu package, or even a deb, you can compile a programme from source for Ubuntu. This is not for the fainthearted or inexperienced.
• If you encounter something you're not sure what to do with, there's a guide to installing anything on Ubuntu here but be careful, some of it is out of date
• Finally, you'll sometimes find software which isn't built for Ubuntu but can easily be installed on Ubuntu by following the makers' instructions.
• Always make sure you've got hold of the right package for your system. If at all possible, use synaptic or apt-get. If you download it from somewhere else, make sure it's for the right version of Ubuntu. If there's no Ubuntu package, look for a deb. If there are both Windows and Linux versions, make sure you've got the Linux version
• Occasionally, a package's instructions will tell you it will only work with a particular kernel. To find out which kernel you have, open a terminal, type this command at the $ prompt:
  uname -r
• If you're not sure which version of Ubuntu you've got, type this command in a terminal:
  cat /etc/lsb-release
• If you need to know which sound or video or wireless card you have (a list of your PCI hardware), run this command:
  lspci
• This command will tell you if you already have a package installed and what state it's in:
  dpkg -s packagename
• you can also use the locate command to find installation files.
• You can also remove, reinstall or purge (remove everything, including config files) using Synaptic, apt-get or dpkg (see their man pages or their user guides above).

Enabling extra repositories

You will probably want to enable extra repositories to get a wider choice of software packages. I've found these some of the more useful:

• You'll find a guide to adding and using Ubuntu repositories here
• I find the medibuntu (Multimedia, Entertainment & Distractions In Ubuntu) repository very useful as it contains proprietary runtimes, codecs and applications you might need
• If you're feeling fainthearted, you'll find an easy way to enable playback of the popular formats here.

A few popular applications you might want to install:

Music and media

• Ubuntu's default media application really isn't much good. For a simple, all-round media player, I like mplayer or xine-ui which uses the totem-xine libraries.
• For GNOME (the standard Ubuntu desktop) I like Exaile to manage music libraries but it can be buggy. A lot of people prefer Amarok. The trouble is Amarok is designed for KDE so it's fine if you have Kubuntu but can be slow on GNOME as it needs to load the KDE libraries as well — but you probably won't notice much if you have a powerful machine. For streaming, VLC is the best. All of these can be installed with synaptic or apt-get.

Graphics and pictures

• For graphics editing, the standard choice is gimp, which can be installed using synaptic or apt-get
• F-spot is a photo album application which can be installed with synaptic or apt-get.

HTML editors

• For HTML editing, bluefish is the most powerful application. It can be installed using synaptic or apt-get. It doesn't have wysiwyg though.
• Kompozer is the best wysiwyg HTML editor

FTP and Download managers

• The excellent GUI FileZilla FTP client can be installed using synaptic or apt-get
• There's a GUI download manager available for Ubuntu called D4X which can be installed using synaptic or apt-get — I've found it buggy but if you want a graphical download manager it's probably the best.
• I like wget, a commandline download manager which comes preinstalled. Find out how to use it by typing 'man wget' into a terminal window or the wget manual is here.

Chat and VoIP

• Skype can be installed on Ubuntu. Download a Skype deb here and install it with Gdebi. I prefer OpenWengo, a competitor to Skype which has a much better Linux client and which allows you to add your instant messenger accounts (MSN, YIM, Jabber etc) into the same interface. It also offers calls to landlines on a pay-as-you-go basis. The only drawback is that very few people know about it and so your have to load Skype as that's where your friends are. Unless you can educate your friends, of course. Wengo also has a Windows version.
• Xchat is a good IRC client and can be installed with synaptic or apt-get
• Pidgin multi-protocol instant messenger is pre-installed on Ubuntu. You can add all your MSN, YIM, ICQ, AOL and Google chat accounts into a single interface

Misc

• I like GoogleEarth! You can download the GoogleEarth Linux version here, the installation instructions are here
• One of the things I like about Linux is that there's excellent and free bibliographic software called Bibus. Instructions for installing Bibus on Ubuntu here. It has a reputation for being difficult to install but I had no problems following the instructions and Bibus works fine.

That should be enough to be going along with. You can browse all the packages available for Ubuntu via synaptic or apt-get here. If you want to find out quickly whether a package is available for Ubuntu via synaptic or apt-get, go to the quicksearch box in Firefox, select 'Ubuntu package search' and enter the name of the package — it's quicker than waiting for synaptic's awesomely slow search and you can just quickly install it with apt-get. If you don't mind using a terminal, try 'apt-cache search'.