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The Ubuntu developers have made the installation process extremely simple. Like a lot of distros, Ubuntu has a live CD, which gives anyone interested in switching to Ubuntu the opportunity to first sample the goods before diving head first into the experience. When you boot up the live CD, you'll be prompted to "Start or Install" the current version of Ubuntu on the CD (you may also perform some other checks with the Live CD, such as checking your memory, checking the disc for errors, or installing Ubuntu under "safe graphics mode", if you're experiencing difficulties with your current graphics card and the Ubuntu live CD).

Once the live CD has booted (which varies in time depending on the speed of your hardware, it usually takes me about 15 seconds to boot up the live CD, some people experience considerably longer times), you'll be greeted with the Ubuntu gnome desktop. The screenshots we're using are from the latest and greatest Ubuntu distribution Gutsy Gibbon; according to Ubuntu's home page, you're going to need at least 256 MB of memory to run Gutsy Gibbon; if you have an older machine, and this is more memory than you have, consider an earlier version of Ubuntu, going with a lighter distro of Ubuntu such as Xubuntu, or skipping Ubuntu altogether for an extremely lightweight distro of Linux, such as Damn Small or Puppy Linux.

To begin the installation process, you'll click the big "install" button residing on the desktop. Ubuntu has done a good job of making their installation easy to understand. If you're installing over top a version of Windows, Ubuntu will be more than happy to detect your users from your Windows system along with their documents and copy them to the respective home folders on your new Linux distribution. Ubuntu also comes with a handy partitioner that takes all the work out of dual booting with Windows; however, I caution that if you go with this approach, you defragment your Windows drive and take a peek at our dual booting articles.

Once you've set up your main user account, set up the partition tables (go with the defaults by the way if you're new to this stuff), and answered a couple questions about your keyboard layout and timezone, Ubuntu will begin installing to your hard drive. Unlike other distros such as OpenSUSE or Fedora, Ubuntu doesn't ask you any questions about what software you would or would not like installed on the system. Ubuntu just goes ahead and installs a basic set of commonly used software. This might seem like a downside if you have a lot of extras such as a web server, scripting languages, relational database systems, etc that you want on the systems, but thankfully, Ubuntu has an easy-to-use packaging system that will quickly retrieve all of those extras you crave. After the install is finished, you'll be asked if you'd like to restart the system or continue using the live CD; I suggest you restart so you can see how fast your new Ubuntu system is.

Log in with the user name and password you previously set up during the install process and then start going nuts with your new Ubuntu operating system. Most likely, immediately after installing, the system is going to want to make a lot of updates; you should let these go through before you start installing any additional software.

Now, you might be wondering where to begin. If you're used to Windows, you're probably wondering about a Firewall; well, a Firewall is already running but good luck configuring it if you're a newbie. Try installing the application 'firestarter' using your add/remove programs app that comes with Ubuntu; this will make working with the Firewall easy. Ubuntu already comes with your other basics such as a web browser (Firefox), an instant messenger (Pidgin), email (Evolution), etc. If you're having any trouble at all, visit the Ubuntu community, where you'll get answers to just about any problem you could imagine. It's hard to say what problems you may run into; some people (with wireless cards) have issues getting drivers so their internet connection will work; some people run into problems with their printers. Whatever the case may be, try checking out the Ubuntu community and just plain doing a little research. Honestly though I had problems with some earlier versions of Ubuntu, I haven't had a great deal of issues with the newest version.

Now, if you're wondering why, at Linuxhow2, we gave Ubuntu 4 out of 5 penguins and not the full enchilada, well, it's because (and feel free to disagree) we have always found Ubuntu a little weak in the System Admin area, particularly with GUI applications. Sure, you could take the time to install some of these applications yourself, or you could just learn how to edit the system files manually (but who wants to do that if you're new to the Linux community?). To give an idea of what we mean, look at the GUI that shows running services; unlike the equivalent program in a distro such as Fedora, there's no easy way to stop and start a service, restart a service, see what PIDs a service is running under, for that matter see if a service is even running. As we mentioned earlier, there's no auto-installed GUI for the Firewall. And there are other services lacking too. We realize that Ubuntu is meant for the every day user, the guy who wants to install his OS and forget it's even there, running swimmingly well, not harassing you every five minutes like some OSes, but at the same time, they should throw in a few more GUI apps for the system admins who are concerned with how everything's running. That's just our two cents.

And really now, four out of five penguins ain't bad.