So you either installed Oracle Virtual Box, tried a Live distro or you decided to install Linux on a machine for real.
The process from here on in the same. I can only take screenshots from Virtual Box, so if you are doing this for real just ignore the screens that are surrounding the main formation. So we will assume that you have changed the boot settings in the BIOS to boot from the Live or installation CD/DVD or USB stick and go from there.
Here is the Lubuntu splash screen, yours may be different, but all Ubuntu derivatives are equally easy and very similar.
Okay, a blank desktop screen appears, not for long-
Let's install Linux!
Install in your favourite language, English is good for me.
If you have an internet connection via Ethernet (or if Wifi decides to work straight away) you can accept 'Download Updates'. In any case DO install third party software etc... it is on the CD/DVD/USB stick or you will wonder why there is no sound or whatever.
Decision time.
This will not only delete your Windows installation and any files you have stored on it, but also the Windows recovery partition. If you have an older machine you may not care. But if you want to Dual Boot or save your recovery partition you MUST look more into partitioning before proceeding. It's a subject comprehensively covered elsewhere.
The other alternative is to dual boot between Linux and Windows, I am going to assume you do NOT want to do this, you will need a lot of spare hard drive space and to have backed up important work. If your machine has Windows 8, 8.1 or 10 on please do more research before attempting a dual-boot install it is not straightforward. Those versions of Windows do weird things with partial shutdowns and booting though UEFI partitions. It is only for the technically competent. If that is you, why are you here?
We are going to delete everything and use the whole hard drive for the installation as one single partition. Now geeks will tell you that there are better ways do do this and I spend many hours sorting out the issues caused by multiple partition installations. FORGET IT! Unless you plan to buy a TUX penguin t-shirt and join the local geek squad just do the default thing, it works just fine. If you want to build a Steam Gaming monster with multiple graphics cards and become a recluse. Then it's a different story...
Kiss
Linux uses a swap partition as well as a root or / partition. It can use many more, but we do not need that today. Do not encrypt your hard drive or use LVM for now. You can build something different and more complicated next year when you know a lot more. KISS - keep it simple, stupid!
Regional setting
tell it where you live for the time zone and language in the menus.
Pick a keyboard layout
test the £, @, $ and # keys if you need to, they are the ones that often disappear
Who are you?
Caution Linux is caSe SenSitive! Again do not encrypt the home folder unless its a faster machine. You can add more user accounts later and with lots of control so its ideal for kids or granny. Do set a password, unless you never leave the house and live on a desert island.
This page is getting long, so go to Part 2 of Installing a Linux Distro!
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