Following the death of Windows XP, millions of people worldwide have been left wondering what to do next. The dilema is whether to upgrade to another version of Windows or perhaps try something completely different, like Linux. If you are leaning more towards the Linux camp but aren’t sure how to go about installing it, don’t worry, we are here to help.

Ubuntu has to be one of the most popular forms of the Linux operating system; it’s free and will run on virtually any computer. The step-by-step guide that follows will take you through the process of installing Ubuntu by booting from a CD. There are other ways but this is the easiest.

If you go to the Ubuntu website you can download the ISO file, which is basically a CD image file, which needs to be burned to a CD. For the purpose of this article we are looking to install Ubuntu 12.04.04 LTS, which is the current version, giving you continuous hardware support and guaranteed security and support updates until April 2017. (The process will remain the same for future versions too.)

You need to download the 64-bit version of Ubuntu if you have a Windows 8 PC or one with UEFI firmware. Anything older, then you need to select the 32-bit version.

If you have Windows 7, 8 or Mac OS X then you will be able to burn the ISO file to a disc without the need of a seperate program. Otherwise you have to download a program that will burn as ISO to a CD or DVD. (These are available either free or for a small fee, depending on which you choose.)

The next step is to restart your computer and you may need to configure your PC to boot from the CD that you have just created. To do this, bring up your BIOS settings (usually done by pressing F2, F12 or DEL), find the boot settings section and change the boot order so that your CD/DVD drive is first on the list.

As soon as you have booted from the disc, you will given the option to try Ubuntu before you actually install it. You can explore the operating system and get a feel for how it looks and works. The trial just runs from the disc, without altering anything on your PC.

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