Advice for a newbie

I don’t see any advice for a complete novice ie. How do you install Ubuntu on an existing machine or where is best place to find an off the shelf desktop or laptop?

The following video goes through the process of installing Ubuntu Mate. It does it with a virtual machine. But, the process is identical for a bare metal machine.

If you prefer, you can also get a DVD for about 9 bucks that will live boot Ubuntu and give you the option of installing it onto your computer…

Note that the above link is for a 64 bit system…32 bit is also available.

You can also get a bootable flash drive for about 13 bucks…

Hello Barry_T

We also have a tutorial section. Here is one:

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You can get a copy of Mate 16.04 at Amazon for $4.00:
https://www.amazon.com/Ubuntu-MATE-16-04-LTS-Bit/dp/B01F1CMJU0/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1484841769&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=ubuntu+mate+disc

This tutorial is in fact very helpful. I installed my current Ubuntu Mate 16.04 64bit with this tutorial without any Problems.

Further I would recommend to use an USB-Stick instead of an CD. The Stick is much faster.

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My only concern is the level of technical knowhow required should the installation not go smoothly. And whether that would effect the Windows already installed.

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You didn’t indicate, earlier, that you needed to install alongside MS windows. It would have helped if you had done so. See below for a video I made for someone on how to install Ubuntu alongside MS Windows. The tutorial is done in a VM and it shows how to install Lubuntu, not Ubuntu Mate, alongside MS Windows. However, the installation process is identical:

Given your entry level skills with Linux, however, I strongly recommend you take a copy of any personal files off your Windows installation before embarking on this

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An other way is to install your Ubuntu on your Windows System is in a Virtual Machine like VirtualBox. This way is absolute safe for your Windows and you can use both systems at same time.

I changed by this way to Ubuntu step by step. At the point (after a few months using both), I have used Ubuntu in VirtualBox more than I Windows used, I changed and made full install with Ubuntu Mate on my Laptop. Since this, I use Windows in Virtualbox (in fact only for clean printing on canon printer).

And if you dont like Ubuntu, you can delete the Virtual Machine and Ubuntu is gone. That’s it.

Plus: Your technical knowhow is growing up by the way using Ubuntu in VirtualMachine. In my case, I was an absolute newbie before, in Windows and Linux as well. Ok, I learnded by Android. :blush:

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That sounds like an idea. I’ll check it out dude.

Another alternative is to get a machine with pre-installed software.
I looked at a company in UK called Entroware but I see someone on here
has posted a message saying he was ripped off by a crap machine and claimed it was his fault.
Didnt sound good.
Also, can you migrate documents from W to U or do you just put stuff on a stick?

I mean they claimed it was his fault

You can migrate stuff. That is to say, UM can read its own EXT file system and can also read FAT and NTFS Windows file systems (though, I seem to remember, Linux can sometimes find NTFS problematic). However, Windows cannot read EXT files systems. There are three solutions that come to mind:

  1. Have three partitions on a single internal hard drive. One for Windows, One for UM and a third one that is just for files that they may share. This third one should be formatted to FAT so that both OS’s can read it unproblematically.

  2. Have to two internal drives. One for Your Windows and UM Os’s. The other as a shared data drive. The same rules apply for data access as described previously

  3. Have one internal drive for your two Os’s and an external USB drive/stick for shared data. Same rules apply again for shared dates access

I use solution 2.