Linux has long been extensively used for servers and so security has always been a key part of its design. Once installed, updates and bug fixes of the operating system and the software you run are easily downloaded and incorporated into your system, much the same as they were with your use of Windows XP. Once you get your Linux system up and running it’s just as easy as a Windows XP setup. You then have the option of installing it either alongside your existing operating system, or overwriting the old system with the new. Click on the icon and follow the instructions. When you are happy with what you see, there is normally an icon on the desktop that you can use to install the operating system onto your hard disk.

Try out the “live” Linux system for a while without installing it on your computer. Once you have this you simply restart the computer and during the first few seconds of the computer turning on you instruct the computer to boot off the media you created. Instructions on how to do this are available on the website of each distribution. To install a new operating system you need to create a bootable USB device, CD-ROM, or DVD of the distribution you would like to give a go. Users can now install and configure the system desktop by following a few onscreen prompts without the need for any technical command-line interaction.īut before trying out any new operating system software, it is very important to backup your files to external media such as a USB device, and also to test that your backup works. In the early days installing and running Linux on a computer required considerable technical abilities but over the years this has become a lot simpler. More software options are available too with many included in the Free Software Directory. GIMP for editing photos and other images instead of Microsoft Photo Editor or Adobe Photoshop.VLC media player to play your movies and music instead of Windows Media Player.LibreOffice instead of Microsoft Office.

Mozilla Thunderbird, Evolution and others instead of Microsoft’s Outlook or Outlook Express for email.Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, KDE Konqueror and many more instead of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer for browsing the web.

These package together a suite of standard programs which enable you to do the types of things you would do in Windows XP, such as search the web, send and receive emails, edit and print documents.įor the most part the user interface and experience is very similar to what you would have experienced in Windows XP and typical alternatives to Microsoft software include: Firefox is one of many alternative browsers to Internet Explorer.

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