How to Download and Installing Linux Step by Step For Beginners

This step-by-step guide for the installation of Linux is so easy that anybody can be installing Linux Mint and switch away from Windows.

However, I prefer Cinnamon; it's easy to use and not too unfamiliar for users switching to Linux from Windows. The underlying system is the same in all cases; the desktop manager is just the front-end GUI if you like.

The purpose of Linux Mint is to produce a modern, elegant, and comfortable operating system that is powerful and easy to use. Linux Mint is one of the most popular desktop Linux distributions millions of people use.

Some of the reasons for the success of Linux Mint are:

• It works out of the box, with full multimedia support and is extremely easy to use.
• It's both free of cost and open source.
• It's community-driven. Users are encouraged to send feedback to the project so that their ideas can be used to improve Linux Mint.
• Based on Debian and Ubuntu, it provides about 30,000 packages and one of the best software managers.
• It's safe and reliable. Thanks to a conservative approach to software updates, a unique Update Manager and the robustness of its Linux architecture, Linux Mint requires very little maintenance (no regressions, no antivirus, no anti-spyware...etc).

Installing Linux Mint

Firstly, you need to head over to the Linux Mint website and follow the download links to the correct version for your computer.

Now comes the most difficult part of the process: booting from that ISO image. If you try Linux on a virtual machine, you can mount the image as a drive from within the settings. If you have a CD or DVD drive, you can burn the ISO to disk and configure your BIOS to boot from CD. You can also create a bootable USB thumb stick. Since my computer does not have a CD drive, I'll use the USB thumb drive. To do this, you need to use a tool such as UNetBootin to make a bootable USB. I advise using a 4GB or less USB drive, as I've had great trouble booting from larger capacities.

Once that is done, boot from your chosen media, and you should get the Linux Mint Live CD environment to play with. This fully working Linux environment is complete with Firefox; you can try out Linux Mint if you wish. Remember that nothing you do will be saved when you are ready to install Linux Mint, so double-click on the installation icon.

On this welcome screen, select your preferred language and hit continue.

You will now see a screen asking if you want to install third-party software. This usually isn't (fully) open-source software, or the software has different licensing terms which people might not want to install. This software usually has graphics card drivers, sound drivers, etc. For the average home user, check the tick box and click continue.

After a short while, the installer will present a screen where you can configure how the disk is used. This is the area most beginner Linux users do not understand.

The hard drive is blank, so I'm not worried about backing anything up, but if you are switching to Linux for the first time, you'll have Windows already installed. If you wish, Linux and Windows can be dual-booted, and this will be a topic for another article in the future.

For now, I assume you have backed up all your data and are happy that your hard drive will be wiped clean. We can then set up Linux partitions and configure encryption. I'm also going to use the guided method for creating partitions. You can set everything manually, but that is a more advanced tutorial for the future.

Select the option to erase the disk and install Linux Mint.

If you want to encrypt the drive to enhance security, go ahead and check that box. This will show another screen allowing you to set a decryption key. Without this key, anybody cannot access your home directory.

If you do not require encryption, Logical Volume Management (LVM) is optional but recommended. If you are encrypting your home directory, then LVM is required.

If you have chosen to encrypt, the next screen will let you set a security key, so go ahead and type it in twice. Don't lose your key!

The other option on this screen is to overwrite space. This will effectively write a bunch of zeros to the drive, meaning no prior contents can be recovered. This will make the installation process much slower.

Clicking on the Install Now button will prompt you to accept changes and write changes to disk.

The next screen allows you to set your location, timezone, and keyboard layout.

The last screen will set up a user profile for you.

The final step is copying files. The installation should take between 10 and 15 minutes, so make yourself a cup of tea while this is working away.

When prompted, remove the DVD from the drive or remove the USB and press Enter. Your computer is now ready to boot Linux Mint from the hard drive.

Once Linux Mint is finished loading, you should see a new screen inviting you to enter your username and password.

Once you log in, you will see the default Linux Mint Cinnamon desktop in all its glory.

There are loads of applications which come pre-installed with Linux Mint, from Firefox to LibreOffice. These can all be accessed from the Mint menu on the bottom left. You can use the search to locate applications and install more applications from the free App Store by going into Software Manager.