Chapter 3. Installing Ubuntu

Secrets in This Chapter

  • Preparing Your PC

  • Installing from LiveCD

  • Installing from Alternate CD

  • Server Installation

Once you've decided that Ubuntu is the Linux distribution for you, and that it'll work properly on your PC, you should install it on your hard drive to get its full benefits. Although the Ubuntu installation process has become fine tuned and streamlined over the years, there are still a few things you need to be concerned about when installing the system. This chapter discusses what you should think about before you start the installation, then walks through the process step by step to ensure that your Ubuntu installation experience is a happy one.

Preparing Your PC

Before you start the installation process, you should take some time to analyze the workstation or server you're going to use for your Ubuntu system. Although the Linux world has made great advances in hardware support, there are still a few things you need to watch out for. This section describes some of the things you should look at while analyzing your hardware.

System Requirements

In the old days of Linux (the 1990s), one of the selling points of the Linux operating system was that it could run on just about any old piece of computer hardware you had lying around. Unfortunately, with the popularity of fancy graphical desktop environments, those days are mostly over (see Chapter 1, "What Is Ubuntu?").

To get the most from your Ubuntu desktop experience, you'll want to have a fairly decent ...

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