{"id":267663,"date":"2018-07-21T13:00:30","date_gmt":"2018-07-21T11:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=267663"},"modified":"2018-07-21T13:02:03","modified_gmt":"2018-07-21T11:02:03","slug":"how-to-install-linux-on-your-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/software\/267663-how-to-install-linux-on-your-pc.html","title":{"rendered":"How to install Linux on your PC"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you are building a new system or upgrading an existing PC, installing Linux as the OS may not be the first option you considered.<\/p>\n

Linux is the underlying structure used to power operating system distributions which are similar to the software most users are familiar with – Windows.<\/p>\n

It is open source and prevalent in a number of software distributions, from smart IoT platforms and Android smartphones to server operating systems.<\/p>\n

Installing a Linux distribution instead of Microsoft Windows on a new or existing machine can be great for reducing overhead and saving costs.<\/p>\n

While certain video games and applications may not run correctly on Linux desktop distributions, most common tasks can be conducted with the same level of convenience as “standard operating” systems.<\/p>\n

Choosing a version<\/h3>\n

Popular Linux distributions which feature similar interfaces to Windows include Ubuntu, Mint, and Manjaro, although there are a variety of other projects, including an actively-developed desktop version<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0of the Android operating system.<\/p>\n

Which version you decide to install on your system will depend on what you plan to use it for.<\/p>\n

If you use the PC as you would a standard Windows computer, then you could select a distribution which offers a Windows-like experience and is beginner-friendly.<\/p>\n

If you are building a machine as a headless network-connected media centre with limited capabilities, you could use a lightweight distribution and control the system remotely.<\/p>\n

It is also important to choose a distribution which is in line with the hardware capabilities of your system.<\/p>\n

Note the storage requirements and memory overhead of your chosen distribution to ensure that your hardware will be able to run it smoothly, otherwise you may need to downgrade to a distribution with fewer features.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

How to install Linux<\/h3>\n

Installing a Linux distribution is relatively straightforward, especially when using popular distributions like Ubuntu<\/strong><\/a> or Mint<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The first step is to fire up a PC and download the correct version of your chosen Linux distribution.<\/p>\n

Visit a secure website hosting the distribution, and download the correct ISO file for your destination system – example: 64-bit version for a system with a 64-bit CPU.<\/p>\n

After downloading the ISO, insert a flash drive big enough to store the Linux distribution file on into the PC where the file has been downloaded to.<\/p>\n

Using a free utility like Rufus<\/strong><\/a>, set up the flash drive as a bootable drive by selecting the ISO image option and opening the ISO file you downloaded.<\/p>\n

Once the ISO has been installed on the USB drive, remove it from your machine and insert it into the PC where you want to install your Linux distribution.<\/p>\n

Boot this PC and enter the BIOS menu to set the flash drive as the main boot drive.<\/p>\n

You can then restart the machine and follow the on-screen instructions to install your chosen Linux distribution.<\/p>\n

These on-screen instructions can vary between distributions, but usually require the user to run an install executable and then proceed through a setup wizard to define their type of installation.<\/p>\n

This method works for installing Linux distributions either as a standalone OS or alongside an existing Windows installation.<\/p>\n

Now read:\u00a0The most popular programming languages in the world<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you are building a new system or upgrading an existing PC, installing Linux may not be an option you considered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341028,"featured_media":144471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[5700,35,1799,33671,31158,52259,26970],"class_list":["post-267663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-software","tag-distribution","tag-headline","tag-linux","tag-mint","tag-software","tag-upgrade","tag-windows-10"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267663"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341028"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267663"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":269185,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267663\/revisions\/269185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}