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Ubuntu Linux Tutorials

Ubuntu Linux / How to Obtain Ubuntu Linux

Subtitles of the Movie

Hello and welcome to WTCs course on Ubuntu Linux, my name is Chess Griffin. In this tutorial we will talk about three ways to obtain Ubuntu Linux at no cost or very little cost. Ubuntu Linux is available for free as is most Linux distributions. Linux and Ubuntu are generally free software which means software available at no restriction. Free software does not necessarily mean software available at no cost, although it can mean that, but generally speaking free software means software that is available under an open and unrestricted license such as the GPL. Now Ubuntu Linux is also provided at no cost. It could be available through download, through receiving a CD in the mail or through third parties. Lets turn to each of these three options one at a time. The first way to receive or to obtain Ubuntu Linux is to download the ISO image. Now an ISO is an image of the CD-ROM, of the operating system. Its almost like a zip file, if you will. It is not the CD-ROM itself. Its an image. It's a data file that then must be burned onto a blank CD-ROM, not copied but the CD, the ISO must actually almost be expanded or uncompressed and then rebuilt and then burned onto a CD-ROM. Most CD-ROM burning programs have this capability. So, the first way to obtain Ubuntu Linux is to download the CD installer. As it says right here its nearly 700 megabytes which again is just about the size of a one blank CD-ROM. This page here shows you the various places you can go to download the Ubuntu Linux distribution. In this particular case there are different versions that are available. The newest version or an older version with long term support. There are two options that are available. If one was to choose the newest release the next step would be to choose a location near where one lives and clicking these links gives you various websites where the Ubuntu Linux distribution, the ISO, the CD image, or the CD installer, all of those mean the same things where that can be obtained. It also provides instructions on how to burn the CD to a blank disc. The next way to obtain Ubuntu Linux is to use a service provided by Ubuntu Linux that is very unique. It's called ship it. Ship it is a free CD available from Ubuntu itself. Now Ubuntu only provides ship it free CDs for certain releases of Ubuntu Linux. Not every single release in available through a free CD but this is very unique service thats not provided by many other Linux distribution and it can be used to obtain a CD of Ubuntu Linux for free anywhere in the entire world. It also has links to other ways to obtain Ubuntu Linux including from distributors and buying in large quantities and things like that. So the first way to obtain Ubuntu Linux is to click on the download link and download the CD installer or the CD-ROM, the CD ISO yourself and burn it onto a blank disk. The second way is to request a free CD using the Ubuntu Linux ship it program and the third way is to use a third party vendor. There are many, many vendors out on the internet that will provide you CD-ROMs of various Linux distributions at a very nominal cost. Here is one, for example, that has live CD's and CD's for various Linux and BSD operating systems at a very low cost and they usually provide a list of some of the newer products but they have an entire catalogue as well that can be available. Here are some of the most popular ones including the current version of Ubuntu Linux and you can see they have here 1 CD available for the regular PC platform at a $1.95 - very low cost. Ubuntu comes in other platforms including Mac, 64 bits and there's also a server addition. So one can just select this and purchase it. There might be a small shipping charge of CD to your home but for just a few dollars these third party vendors like this one right here can provide you CD's delivered to you door. However, I would say that most people probably download the CD-ROM from the Ubuntu website or one of the other websites that are called mirrors for free and burning it onto a blank disk and again this page does provide instructions on how to do that including how to do it from windows and this will be the subject of another tutorial. That's it for this tutorial. Thank you very much.

Tutorial Information

Course: Ubuntu Linux
Author: Charles Griffin
SKU: 33743
ISBN: 1-933736-68-2
Release Date: 2007-02-22
Duration: 5.5 hrs / 62 lessons
Captions: For Online University members only
Compatibility: Vista/XP/2000, OS X, Linux
QuickTime 7, Flash 8

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