Linux Bible, 8th Edition

Appendix A

Media

In This Appendix

Getting Linux distributions

Creating a bootable CD or DVD

Unless you bought a computer with Linux pre-installed, or had someone install it for you, you need to find a way to get a Linux distribution, and then either install or run it live on your computer. Fortunately, Linux distributions are widely available and come in a variety of forms.

In this Appendix, you learn how to:

• Get a few different Linux distributions
• Create a bootable disk to install your distribution
• Boot Linux from a USB drive

To use this book effectively, you should have a Linux distribution in front of you to work on. It's important to be able to experience Linux as you read. So, try the examples and do the exercises.

Linux distributions are most commonly available from the websites of the organizations that produce them. The following sections describe websites associated with Linux distributions that offer ISO images you can download.

Note

An ISO is a disk image that is formatted in the ISO 9660 file system format, a format that is commonly used with CD and DVD images. Because this is a well-known format, it is readable by Windows, Mac, and Linux systems.

An ISO image can be burned to a CD or DVD medium, depending on the size of the image. An ISO image that is in your file system can be mounted in a Linux in loopback mode, so you can view or copy its contents.

When an ISO image contains a Linux Live CD or installation image, the images are bootable. That means that instead ...