AyeTea

For Windows users installing an operating system has been (until the release of Windows 7 Beta) a pretty one sided affair.  You install an operating system pretty much one way, the Microsoft way.

The Microsoft way of doing things works generally on a couple of principles:

1. The user wants Microsoft software and doesn’t need to try it out
2. The user is not interested in having more than one OS
3. The user’s computer has a CD/DVD drive
4. The user really ought to be kept clear of choices as to how the OS is set up.

When you see it written down it’s pretty easy to get all anti Microsoft.  Their approach may appear to some to be patronising and assumptive.  However that is not too fair on Microsoft.  Most users of their retail product at least have never really challenged the points above.  Most in fact have not ever thought about it.

There is also a lot to be said for limiting choices when it comes to a making the software accessible to those that are not interested nor educated on the workings of the operating system.  More choice means more anxiety and a large number of people want their operating system to nanny them.  I for one have played around with slipstreamed installations, customised lite installs etc.  If I am honest, I have never been that enamoured with the results.  Why go to the effort when lets face it the operating system is mostly capable of looking after me.

THEN CAME LINUX!

I don’t think that it would be too controversial to say that many people who may be interested in Linux will be put off pretty quickly by the bewildering choice on offer when it comes to Linux distributions (or distros as the cool Linux kids are calling them).  Your Linux enthuisiasts will point to this as being a very positive thing.

If you go shopping for a pair of shoes, you would be pretty disapointed if you found only a few very similar looking styles in the store, even if those particular styles were all purpose, running, walking, hiking, casual, smart, tennis, badmington and whatever else you need shoes for.  In the Linux shoe shop you have what seems like hundreds of styles for your deluctation.  Some of those are all purpose shoes that let you do a lot of everything.  Other styles though are designed with only a small range of activities in mind and geared to offering you best performance in these tasks.

But back to the Windows user, as well as being somewhat bewildered in shoe shops, I have to say I was pretty bewildered when trying to pick a Linux distrobution for the Room without Windows Project.  On top of that can I just say a word about the shoe salespeople Computing enthusiasts out there.  Microsoft of course spend a lot of money selling you their product, but I would consider their attitude (and that of their helpful fans and supporters) as pretty much… Here is our single pair of shoes, aren’t they great? which colour sir? and of course… How would you like to pay for those?

Linux on the other hand has an army of enthuisiatic volunteers in their shoe shop, all clamouring to give you a pair of shoes.   Sounds pretty good doesn’t it?  Well yes it is, to have such a bunch out there to help you lace up the shoes, recommend a colour and tell you why they love the shoes so much is a fantastic thing.  If there was one criticism though, all those clamouring voices all saying slightly different things just adds to the confusion of someone like me.  I know what I want my shoes to do roughly and as much as I love the idea of being given shoes, I also yearn for the comfy one size fits all slip on Microsoft shoes.

I am sure that my analogy is flawed, and please feel free to pick it to bits…

So how do you find that perfect pair of shoes?

Well as I said before the Microsoft branded shoes are easy.  You know the general style, you know how comfortable they are it really comes down to how and where you want to buy them.  Good thing there is no need to try them on.  Sure you can get a months trial, but its not always the best way to get an impression of the product.  Trouble is they ask you to throw out your other pair of shoes in the meanwhile.

Linux branded shoes on the other hand you can try on pretty easily and here is how.

Linux lets you try out a working copy of the distribution you are interested in right there in the shop.  There is a fundamental difference in how you install Linux onto a machine compared to Windows.  In linux you can make up a live disk which (I know that the linux users out there reading this have not just fallen off their chair in suprise, but bear with me here this is new to me!) as well as being your installation disk, can also run live on your machine without touching your hard disk.

There are a number of advantages that I can see in this approach.

• You can try out distributions every day of your life if you like, all of which can be done without destroying your existing data
• You can get a good idea not only in if you like the visual style of a distribution, but also get a fair idea on if it plays nice with your hardware
• Even before you start your install, you have a fully functional set of tools that can be used.  You can move files to safety, partition hard drives and even surf the web for help if things are confusing you!
• Once you are done with your installation, you can keep hold of the disk as a fall back operating system should you get into trouble later

Now as a windows user this seems pretty nifty, but also a bit complicated to do at first glance.

Luckily I would say that is not so.  Best of all you can prepare your live disk in the comfort of your old familiar and comfortable Windows environment.

Better still, you have a couple of choices here. Want to make up a CD to install from?  Not an issue, when you download an installation, it tends to come as a disk image.  An Iso file has a big advantage in that using most CD burning applications you just select the ISO and burn it to the disk.  The disk is automatically set up correctly to make your shiny bit of plastic bootable.  Google ISO and you will see how easy it is.

The other choice was even better for me.  Linux Live disks are not restricted to only those old hat and outdated CDs or DVDs.  Heck my Asus EeePC901 Ultra Mobile PC doesn’t come equiped with an optical drive.  It uses SD cards as its portable storage.  Yep Linux does SD and it does it as easily (if not more so) as it takes to burn an ISO image to disk.

Introducing Unetbootin

This is a practical little tool that does all the setup of an SD card for you.  You can download it, run the executable without installing it onto windows and within just a few options install Linux.

Unetbootin wil even download one of the main distributions for you.

The first option open to you is to select a distribution, note that this option will download the operating software for you.  If that is what you wish to do, select your distribution, select your version and at the bottom of the application window select which device that you wish to install to.  Click OK and make yourself a coffee.  Easy?

Well it may be easy, but not necesariy the best way of doing things in my view.  One, depending on the version of Unetboootin you download, you might not have the very latest version of the Linux distro that you are interested (and everyone wants the latest don’t they?

Secondly if you are using torrents or download managers it may be faster for you do download the ISO file for the Linux distro that you are looking for.  You may also wish to do this if you are after a version that is just out.

If this is the way to go, thankfully it is just as easy.  This time download the ISO image to your hard drive.  Next select the second option set marked Diskimage andf use the browse button (marked …) on the right to point Unetbootin to your downloaded ISO.  Again select the device that you wish to make a live disk.  Oh  by the way you can use USB drives for this as well.

The next options are outside my limited knowledge so I left these be for now.

Using this I managed to make up several live disks to try out some distributions.  Want to know which one I picked?

Well I will tell you shortly.  The install is hitting some problems just now.  I hate to admit it, but my backups from within windows were not complete, so I am redoing them to catch the missing files!