Setting up a home office can be a daunting task. It can also be an expensive one if you are pricing it with all of the needed software for Windows. Of course, for every problem there is a solution. In this case your solution is a version of Linux known as Ubuntu. Today, we will look at how to set up your home office with Ubuntu. In just a few hours you will be up and running.
Why Ubuntu?
You may wonder why we choose Ubuntu for your home office setup. Well, here are a few good reasons:
It is very user friendly, especially for end users that are coming off of Windows.
It has a great deal of documentation and an active user community that can help you if you get stuck.
Ubuntu comes with one of your key pieces of software (Open Office) already installed on it, which saves you time during the setup process. That's time that you can use to work on projects, install other software and generally do business.
Except when you have to set up your wireless network, you can go for months (or forever) without having to use your command prompt. This is a blessing for less technically-oriented end users.
Now that we know why, let's talk about how to get the operating system. You can download the Ubuntu operating system online from the home page. Once you have it downloaded, it is time to burn the ISO file/create your install disk.
This is a little bit different from your standard file burn. You can not just drag the file and click on burn. It is a special process. To do this, choose the operating system of the computer that you downloaded the file onto and follow the instructions.
95 / 98 / ME / 2000 / XP / Server 2003 / Vista: Infra Recorder
Download and install Infra Recorder, a free and open source image burning program.
Insert a blank CD in the drive and select "Do nothing" or "Cancel" if an autorun dialog pops up.
Open Infra Recorder and click the "Write Image" button in the main screen. Alternatively, you can select the "Actions" menu, and then "Burn image."
Select the Ubuntu CD image file you want to use, and then click "Open."
In the dialog, click "OK."
Windows 7
Right-click on an ISO image and choose “Burn disc image.”
Select a disk burner (drive) and press "Burn."
If you check “Verify disc after burning,” it will verify that the ISO image has been burned correctly
Mac OSX
Launch Disk Utility (Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility).
Insert your blank CD/DVD.
Drag and drop your .iso file to the left pane in Disk Utility. Now both the blank disc and the .iso should be listed.
Select the .iso file, and click on the Burn button in the toolbar.
Now that you have your file, let's talk about getting it onto the target machine.
