best Linux apps 2012

For everyone at Linux Format magazine and most of its readers, computers and Linux are a passion.
Linux is perfect: its open source nature and excellent shell make it the ultimate hobbyist's operating system. Fortunately, there's a huge number of top-class applications available as well: market leading packages for professional and consumer level media creation, tools for developers, systems administrators and students - as well as great games to help you procrastinate on a Friday.
Here we introduce you to the 50 best apps for Linux. We didn't just want the 50 most popular, so we asked our readers on TuxRadar for their favourites in a bid to discover some little-known gems.
The response was overwhelming. You introduced us to great programs that we'd never heard of. You also gave thoughtful, and often entertaining, explanations as to why you really love the software that you do.
We've integrated the best of your picks into our list, and the best of your quotes. We hope you enjoy the list, and if you don't already follow TuxRadar, we hope the results might motivate you to go and get involved in some of the great conversations that go on there. On with the list...
1. OpenShot
Video editor
Web: www.openshot.org
License: GPL
Price: Free

Maybe you're a skateboarder and want to show off your best tricks without all the boring bits in between, or maybe you want to put together a promo video for an event you're organising. In the past, if you were a Linux user your options were limited to tools that could only handle a single input format (Kino); that were powerful but had terrible interfaces (Cinelerra); or were just unstable.
Now, however, there's OpenShot. Getting started is as easy as importing a few clips to your project and then dragging them onto the timeline in any order you want.
Once you've got the basic structure of your video sorted, manipulating the files to give the project a more polished and professional finish is extremely easy.
You can trim clips, split them into segments or add transitions and other effects. You can even turn the audio off on individual clips and replace it with a dedicated soundtrack - a nice easy-listening guitar piece perhaps, or a narration recorded after the event.
Best of all, since OpenShot is based on FFMPEG, it has support for a massive range of input and output formats, meaning you can make your videos available wherever you choose: YouTube, iPods, DVDs... the list goes on.
And, thanks to its simple export mode, you can just select the device you're targeting and OpenShot will do the rest.
2. Apache
Web server
Web: apache.org
License: Apache
Price: Free
In its most recent survey of web servers, Netcraft found Apache to be responsible for 57.3% of active websites, making it almost certainly one of the most successful Linux applications ever.
This success isn't without reason either, being partly a result of its low cost, partly a result of its scalability, and partly a result of its incredible flexibility - whatever you need a web server for, Apache can do it.
3. Firefox
Web browser
Web: mozilla.com
License: MPL, GPL or LGPL
Price: Free
There's no doubt that Firefox has earned itself a place in the hearts of Linux users everywhere, being the browser that broke Microsoft's monopoly and helped 'take back the web'.
Now onto its fourth major version, Firefox's developers appear to be back on top form: it's faster than ever; there are lots of clever ways to manage your tabs; it has great new features to stop advertisers tracking you; and it still has the largest and greatest collection of extensions available anywhere.
4. Dropbox
Online storage
Web: dropbox.com
License: GPL v2 (Nautilus Client)
Price: Free-$20/month
You never need to worry about losing a file again. Dropbox simply creates a folder inside your home directory and any files that you put in there automatically get synced to your own personal storage space on the internet.
Changes are automatically picked up and you can even put in symlinks so you don't need to mess up your normal filing system. More storage space is available for a price.
5. Evolution
Info manager
Web: projects.gnome.org/evolution
License: GPL
Price: Free
Evolution is the Gnome desktop's answer to Microsoft's Outlook. It features integrated email, contact and calendar systems, all of which can be linked to web apps like GMail, Exchange and the GroupWise collaboration server.
This makes Evolution an ideal drop-in replacement for Outlook in any business. What's more, it also includes advanced features as standard, including support for signing and encrypting mail with GPG, intelligent search folders and junk mail filters.
6. Asterisk
Telephony
Web: www.asterisk.org
License: GPL
Price: Free
OK, so nobody actually suggested Asterisk when we were asking for your favourite applications, but we fell in love with it when writing the tutorial in LXF146. It's the quintessential piece of free software, making what used to be only available to a few wealthy corporations and individuals, accessible to anybody who can afford some cheap, commodity hardware and the time needed to learn how it works.
The function it fulfils isn't just some 'nice-to-have' extra either, but central to the operation of any modern business, charity or other large organisation. Most commonly, Asterisk is deployed as a 'Private Branch Exchange,' routing calls between extensions on an internal network and the public telephone system.
Asterisk can be put to more creative uses as well, including creating local rate numbers so that you can connect friends and family living abroad, auto-dialling all your support staff to get a quicker response or setting up a menu so that you don't have to deal with your teenage offspring's calls.
Granted, it can be tricky to understand when you start out, but that's only because it's integrating into a complex, legacy system surrounded by acronyms and specialist vocabulary. Once you understand this, the software's design and configuration makes a lot of sense - you might even say it's intuitive!
7. Getting Things Gnome
Personal organiser
Web: gtg.fritalk.com
License: GPL
Price: Free

Getting Things Gnome is an application that aims to organise your life. It doesn't require you to follow any particular system of organisation, instead providing flexible and easy-to-use methods for adding and managing tasks.
You can organise these tasks by tag, which can specify anything from a location to a priority, or by due-date. It also integrates well with other applications, including Remember The Milk and Tomboy Notes.
8. MyPaint
Drawing tool
Web: mypaint.intilinux.com
License: GPL v2
Price: Free

Although MyPaint isn't a very well-known tool - we hadn't heard of it until ninez suggested it to us on TuxRadar - it is very good at what it does.
It comes with a selection of brushes and support for pressure-sensitive tablets, the result of which is an excellent platform for emulating real media using digital tools. If you're interested in discovering what MyPaint is capable of, its forums are a good starting place.
9. LibreOffice
Word processor
Web: www.libreoffice.org
License: LGPL v3
Price: Free
While some people pick out LibreOffice as a vital Linux application for opening DOCX files from Windows users, it's worthy of praise for more than that. LibreOffice Writer, for instance, although slow at times, has excellent support for stylesheets and can export all your documents as flawless PDF files.
Even better, since it's split from OpenOffice and its corporate parents, new life has been breathed into its development and its future looks very bright.
10. GNU Hello
Programming tool
Web: www.gnu.org/software/hello
License: GPL v3 or later
Price: Free
GNU Hello is a simple program that just prints out 'Hello, World' - albeit taking optional arguments to specify the language. What makes it special is that it's intended to serve as an example of a perfect GNU package, including coding and maintainer standards as well as development practices.
Combined with its documentation, it's an extremely useful way to integrate new coders into a free software project and something that every project should have.
11. CloneZilla
Disaster recovery
Web: clonezilla.org
License: GPL v2
Price: Free
Whether you're worried about data loss, looking to migrate to a larger hard drive or wanting to keep your Windows partition safe in case you have to return your computer for repair, Clonezilla can help.
The software comes as either a live CD or a server application and can create an exact clone of almost any hard drive or partition. Simply drop the disc in your computer, reboot and follow the instructions.
12. Kontact
Personal organiser
Web: userbase.kde.org/Kontact
License: GPL
Price: Free
Kontact was popular with readers of TuxRadar - Huw even said: "I honestly don't know what I'd do if I suddenly lost the use of Kontact." This is largely thanks to its extremely flexible nature, providing users with the means to manage their email, calendar and contacts in a single location.
More than this, however, it also includes support for reading RSS feeds and managing notes through its KJots plugin.
13. Conquest
Strategy game
Web: www.conquest-game.com
License: Proprietary
Price: $9.99

The first point to note about Conquest is that it's no ordinary turn-based strategy game. For one thing, turns are carried out simultaneously and against the clock, so even if you're playing online there's never any waiting around for your next go.
This also means that the pace of the game is a little more frantic: in the space of just a few minutes, you have to assess the results of the previous turn, decide on the next course of action and redeploy your troops accordingly.
What's more, in Conquest there's no resource management. This allows the player to focus entirely on commanding the troops which, let's face it, is the most fun part of any strategy game. Instead, new units are granted to the player automatically, based on territory held and number of turns completed. This doesn't necessarily make the game any easier, however, as it means to master it you have to be able to keep track of how many units your opponents will be receiving and when - which adds an interesting new dimension to the gameplay.
If you're not sold on the innovative, enjoyable gameplay, then perhaps the beautiful graphics will do the job. The world maps look great, are varied, and the units are detailed enough to provide plenty of interest. It's certainly a step above many other Linux games in this regard.
All in all, an extremely enjoyable game - especially if you've got some friends to play over a LAN with.
14. Gnome-Do
Application launcher
Web: do.davebsd.com
License: GPL v3
Price: Free

In the beginning was the command prompt. It was a really quick way of using a computer, allowing you to string simple commands together to achieve complex goals, but it provided very little feedback and relied on you already knowing the command you wanted to execute.
This was never going to fly with the wider population of casual computer users. When the mouse came along - complete with GUIs and point-and-click menus - most people forgot about the command prompt and about text interfaces in general.
This has obviously had incredible benefits, opening up the world of computing, the internet and everything that comes with it to the general population, but it's also made many tasks much harder to achieve.
For instance, what if you were writing a document and wanted to look up the definition of a word? Normally, you're stuck switching between the mouse and the keyboard in an incredibly unwieldy process just to do something simple. With just a few simple key strokes, however, Gnome-Do lets you do this without ever having to take your hands off the keyboard.
What's more, Do is smart and suggests possible actions as you type, so you don't need to know the exact command for what you want to do.
Gnome-Do has taken the command prompt philosophy, updated it for the GUI and made its speed and efficiency accessible to everyone - the 'Everyman's powertool'.
15. VIM
Text editor
Web: www.vim.org
License: Charityware (GPL compatible)
Price: Free, donation to Ugandan children requested

It's possible that in this day of fancy GUIs, integrated development environments and cloud-based editors, many developers will either have forgotten about the power of Vim or never even experienced it for themselves. What a loss.
Relying almost exclusively on keyboard commands (unless you use eVim, but then what's the point?), it can take a while to learn all of the shortcuts and become a proficient user, but with a bit of practice the speed at which you're able to edit a text file and hunt down bugs can increase dramatically.
Need to quickly find the definition of a variable or function? No problem, a quick gd will do the trick. What about if you need to quickly delete three words, ten words, an entire line? No problem, Vim's numeric modifiers make this a breeze (d10w, for instance).
Vim's not just for developers, either: its advanced, super-efficient keyboard commands make it an excellent editor for writers as well. It has an extremely sparse interface, making it perfect for all those who jumped on the 'distraction free writing' bandwagon, while retaining all the power and information that you'd expect from a fully-spec'd text editor.
Of course, there are many other excellent text editors available for Linux (not least of which is Emacs) and you may place your loyalty with whichever you wish, but for this article, morbidwar's wonderful quote swung our decision...
16. GPG
Encryption
Web: www.gnupg.org
License: GPL
Price: Free
GPG is a free and compatible alternative to the PGP suite of cryptographic tools. As with all such tools, it's capable of securely encrypting all types of data and can be used to sign digital documents to verify who they came from.
While most people might have little need for encryption, it can be an extremely important tool for those involved in handling sensitive personal information.
17. Inkscape
Graphics editor
Web: www.inkscape.org
License: GPL
Price: Free
Inkscape is a vector graphics editor. While other such editors exist on Linux, including LibreOffice's Draw application, none of them can match Inkscape's range of features or the size of its developer and user community.
This has made it a popular tool with designers who contribute to open source projects, whether through website graphics, icon themes or game graphics, and has resulted in Inkscape becoming one of the most important applications on Linux.
18. Handbrake
DVD ripper
Web: handbrake.fr
License: GPL
Price: Free
HandBrake is a cross-platform DVD ripper. Like almost all DVD rippers, it's a pretty complicated piece of software with a large number of intimidating sounding options for you to fiddle around with.
While this is perfect for home theatre geeks, HandBrake is also usable by mere mortals thanks to its selection of built-in pre-sets that automate much of the process.
19. Network Manager
Web: projects.gnome.org/NetworkManager
License: GPL
Price: Free
Gnome's Network Manager applet is the best tool for managing your laptop's various network connections.
Where it really comes into its own is when you're connecting to a mobile data network: simply plug in your dongle or connect your phone via Bluetooth and Network Manager will provide you with a list of providers and service types. Then, once you've selected yours, everything is automatically set-up. Easy.
20. Ardour
Digital audio workstation
Web: www.ardour.org
License: GPL v2 or later
Price: Free

Many musicians and studios now use digital audio workstations to do everything from recording their inputs to disc, mixing and editing tracks as well as 'mastering' their work for distribution via CD and other mediums.
The software and hardware that allows musicians to do this kind of work is some of the most complex around: it has to be capable of processing high-bit rate signals (=> 24 bits) in real-time, all from lots of different sources simultaneously.
Yet this is exactly what free and open source Ardour does. Thanks to its extremely intelligent design, many limiting factors (bit-rate, number of recordable tracks etc) are only limited by your hardware: if you have enough memory and processing power, for instance, you could record an infinite number of tracks.
What's more, Ardour will work with any interface that Alsa + Jack supports, so you can use consumer or professional kit, from any manufacturer. And if you want to switch products, you don't have to change your software. This kind of flexibility is often not allowed for in commercial applications, as they seek to sell you more expensive equipment rather than allowing you to take full advantage of cheap, commodity PC equipment.
If features alone aren't enough to convince you that Ardour is a truly great Linux application, perhaps the fact that it's been used as the basis for a number of high-end commercial products might - most notably, Harrison's Mixbus and Xdubber, both of which are used by major film studios.
21. Blender
3D content creation suite
Web: www.blender.org
License: GPL
Price: Free

Blender is an open source 3D content creation suite. In fact, many people would say that it's the open source 3D content creation suite. It owes this reputation in large part to the work of the Blender Foundation and the four open projects that it has organised to date.
The goal of all these was to demonstrate that a free and open source workflow could produce 3D animations on a par with anything expensive, closed source tools could do. Each brought together the best artists in the Blender community to work on a single project for 7-12 months and the results were certainly impressive.
While it's worth exploring all four of the projects, in my opinion the 2007/2008 project, Big Buck Bunny, is the best to date. It's not just me who thinks this either, as you will frequently find it being used by television manufacturers at trade shows to demonstrate their HD sets.
As a result of these projects and the interest they have generated, the Blender Foundation team has managed to secure large donations from entrepreneurs, companies and grantgiving bodies. This money has enabled it to fund lots of new development on Blender - most recently in the shape of the 2.5 overhaul of many of Blender's core components to 'bring it up to contemporary interface standards'.
Blender, as the open movie projects demonstrated, was already one of the most capable applications on Linux. Now, thanks to its large and dedicated community, it's destined to continue improving well into the future.
22. Transmission
BitTorrent client
Web: www.transmissionbt.com
License: GPL or MIT
Price: Free
Do your distro a favour, use Transmission to download its next release. It saves on bandwidth bills, is super fast and very easy to do.
23. Puppet
Management
Web: www.puppetlabs.com
License: Apache
Price: Free
A tool for automating the administration of your systems, Puppet lets you automatically roll out configuration changes and quickly recover from disaster.
24. KILE
Latex editor
Web: kile.sourceforge.net
License: GPL
Price: Free
For those who are writing reports including scientific and mathematical notation, Latex is indispensable. Kile makes working with it a breeze and provides easy previews.
25. OpenSSH
Connectivity
Web: www.openssh.com
License: BSD
Price: Free
OpenSSH lets you securely access your systems from any internet-connected computer. This 'tunnel' can be used for routing important communications.

Read more »

How To Start With Linux

Linux is a powerful and attractive desktop operating system

It's that time of year again, when lots of people set resolutions for themselves, trying to break bad habits and form a few good ones.
Many aim to start exercising more or eat less junk food, but here at LXF towers, we think you should consider trying a new operating system.
Unsurprisingly, this being a Linux magazine, we think that you should try Linux. That's why we've created this guide - to give you all the information you need to get started with Linux. We'll begin by looking at what Linux is, and consider why you'd want to use it. We'll then show you how to get your feet wet in a risk-free way, before explaining how to install Linux and go about your day to day business with it.
At the end of the article, we're also going to take a look at how you can begin learning what's happening
 Beginners guide to linux
behind the scenes. This final section isn't necessary for using Linux as a casual computing platform, but it's knowledge that is getting increasingly important as digital technologies are becoming more widespread.
We also happen to think it's a lot of fun to learn how computers work, and a new hobby for a new year is never a bad thing!
We hope that, with this guide in hand, you'll start using Linux, and keep using it long after you've started enjoying all those delicious pastries again.

What is Linux?

Linux is an operating system, in the same way that Windows, Mac OS X, iOS and Android are all operating systems.
Essentially, what an operating system does is provide a platform for everything else on your computer to run on top of.
This platform is made up of lots of different parts. Some parts are responsible for making the hardware work, others for displaying the user interface, and still other parts for ensuring that applications can work with the hardware and each other. Just like Windows etc, Linux performs all of these functions.
You may be asking, "If Linux does all the same things that Windows or Mac OS X does, why bother switching?". The answer is that Linux has its own way of doing things, and for some people, the Linux way suits them better.

Secure, flexible, powerful

Out of the things that Linux does differently, two categories can be formed. The first one covers all the technical aspects that make Linux distinct from other operating systems. This includes, amongst other things: A radically-reduced risk of catching viruses - so much so that only very specialised users need to run anti-virus software.
It's modular, and so infinitely flexible - for example, while Windows limits you to a single user interface (what the system looks like), on Linux you can choose from a dozen different options. It runs well on very old and slow hardware, as well as on super-computers and modern laptops (by some counts, 90% of the world's super-computers are currently running a variant of Linux). It's designed with security in mind, providing advanced features, such as strong encryption, as standard.
One caveat that you'll want to keep in mind, with regard to Linux's technical differences, is that it has a completely different approach to making hardware work. This means that Linux's developers have to add support for hardware all by themselves. They do a remarkably good job of this, and you'll find that almost every piece of hardware imaginable works 'out of the box'.
There are exceptions to this, though, particularly where hardware manufacturers keep the way their devices work a secret. On these occasions, the developers have to figure out how a device works for themselves, and then write the software to make it work - it's kind of like listening to a piece of music to figure out the score.
This most often applies to graphics cards and wireless cards, although even these are almost universally supported these days. Later in the article, we'll show you how to check your hardware works, and how to get help if it doesn't.

Freedom

The second category could broadly be called 'ideological'. Linux is what's known as free software. This doesn't necessarily mean that it's free of charge (although it often is), but that anybody can study how it works, share it with their friends, modify it, and use it for any purpose.
This sounds a bit out there, but it's actually a very important aspect of Linux. For starters, it means that it's not developed by a single company or nation, but by a massive community that's spread around the world. This means you don't need to worry about a company going bust and taking your photos, documents and other data with them; neither do you need to worry that your computing activity is surreptitiously being recorded, or otherwise influenced, to advance some unknown group's interests.
With free software, your computer works for you. When you combine this freedom with Linux's unique technical features, some interesting results emerge. For instance, since Linux works well on older hardware and can be shared for free, it's often used to provide low-cost but powerful computing solutions for developing nations, schools and charities.
What's more, since the source code can be studied, it gives a valuable leg up to many students who wouldn't otherwise be able to get a quality technical education.

How it works

Of course, some people don't use Linux because of any of these reasons - they just like the way it works. They don't care that they could use it to build the next Wikipedia, or that it makes a wonderful educational tool, and they have no interest in bundling up old computers for the developing world. They just find that, out of all the operating systems available, Linux works best for them.
What's more, as we'll soon see, you can try Linux in a virtually risk-free way, without modifying the current contents of your computer. So, you should at least give Linux a try because, whatever you think of its other defining features, you might just find that it works right for you.
Now that you've decided to give Linux a try, you must first back up your data. This isn't because using Linux is dangerous - in fact, as we've said, it's virtually risk-free - it's just that accidents do happen, and you should back up your data regularly anyway.

Lord of the Jungle

If you don't yet have a backup solution, we think that Jungle Disk is a great option. It works with Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, and it has a basic monthly cost of just $2/month.
More importantly, though, it uses Amazon's cloud storage to back up your files. This means that your files are kept in a different location from your computer, ensuring that they'll remain safe even in the event of a fire or any other physical disaster.
Of course, if you're in a hurry or you have limited bandwidth, you could consider burning your data to a DVD, or putting it on a portable hard drive - just remember to keep it in a different location.

Trying Linux

With your data safe, we're ready to get started and load Linux for the first time. For this we're going to use a version of Linux known as Ubuntu.
This version of Linux, like many, is really clever, as you can use it as a live CD. This means that you can run the entire operating system from the disc without it making any changes to your computer.
If you decide you like Linux, you can then install it using the same disc; if you don't, you can just reboot your computer, take out the disc and everything will be just as you left it. It's the perfect way to try Linux without risk.
The only thing you need to bear in mind about live discs is that they're slower than if the operating system were installed on your hard drive. So, while it's a useful way to get a feel for what a system is like, don't think that Linux is always so slow!
To use the live disc, you'll need to put the disc in your computer and then reboot. When the first screen appears, usually with your computer manufacturer's logo on it, you'll need to press a key to tell your computer to start from the disc, rather than your hard drive. This key is different on every PC, but it's usually one of F2, F12 or DEL.
The only way to be sure is to try the different buttons, one of which will display a boot menu. From this menu, you'll want to select whichever entry corresponds to your DVD drive.
Shortly after making this selection, you'll be presented with another menu, this time with the Linux Format logo on it. You'll want to select the entry that reads 'Ubuntu with Gnome', after which your computer will load Linux and eventually leave you at the desktop - the main interface. Great! This is so cool! Now what?
Well, the first thing to do is get familiar with the interface. Before we show you around, remember Linux isn't Windows, and it isn't Mac OS X. As with the technical and ideological differences, Linux's interfaces are different from theirs. This means that it will take a while for you to get used to the way things work, but if you persevere with it, you'll be surprised at how quickly it becomes second nature.
It helps that some of the most basic ideas, such as the mouse, work the same in Linux as in other operating systems. So, you use the left mouse button to select things, some of which require a double-click, and the right mouse button often pulls up a menu with further actions you can perform.
That said, let's take a look around the desktop. As you hopefully noticed while exploring the Activities overview, as well as providing an attractive desktop, Linux comes with a great set of applications installed by default. This means you can get started working with your new operating system as soon as you've turned it on.
A few of the applications will be familiar to users of other platforms, since they're available for all operating systems; some of the applications are Linux-specific, however, and aren't so well known (although they're just as good, if not better!).

Getting to know you

To speed you on your way to familiarity, we've compiled the above table, which compares Ubuntu's default applications with their counterparts on other platforms. Most of the default applications are fairly self-explanatory, requiring little more than a bit of time playing with them to discover their essential functions.
For those times when you're not sure how to do what you want, however, check out the tutorials we've linked to.
The most important thing to do at this point is play around with everything. It's almost impossible to break anything, and if you do, you can just reboot your computer and remove the disc!
Don't forget to launch the System Settings dialog from the user menu, too, as you'll find all kinds of options in there, including changing the wallpaper, the keyboard layout and much more.
While you're trying things out without the fear of breaking them, now is a great time to test your hardware too. If you managed to boot Ubuntu successfully and explore the desktop, you can rest assured that all the most important bits work well already - including your graphics card.

Test cards

Having said all of the above, one bit of hardware Linux occasionally has trouble with is wireless cards, so it's worth using this playing around time to make sure that this works too.
The easiest thing to do is just make sure that your computer can see some nearby wireless networks: to do this, click the small computer icon on the right of the panel and, if all is well, you should see a 'Wireless' entry followed by all the nearby networks.
If you can't see this and you think you should, don't worry too much. With Linux, there's almost always a way to make things work, it sometimes just takes persistence and a helping hand to get there. See 'Getting help with Linux' to find out how to go about solving your problem.

Installing Linux

Things are looking pretty good at this point. You've successfully started your computer with Linux instead of your normal operating system; you've explored the interface and tried a few of the default applications; you've even checked that it works with your most important hardware.
If, by this point, you're wanting to explore this new world further, then it's time to install it on your computer and learn more about the system. This will give you the chance to begin finding out how you can tweak the system, how fast it runs in the real world, and to use it with your own files in your day to day work.
This is the part where that backup you made is more important, as we're going to be making changes to your computer's hard drive. It's surprisingly easy, but in the event of any mistakes, you'll want to know that your data is safe. If you didn't make a backup earlier, do it now.
To start the installation process, get to the desktop of the live CD as before, and then double-click the Install icon on the desktop. From this point on, most of the installation screens will ask you straightforward questions about your language, time zone, keyboard layout and the like.
However, there are one or two screens that will require a bit of further explanation. The third screen of the installer will give you some options covering how Ubuntu should be installed - whether to install it alongside your existing operating system, to replace the existing system entirely, or to let you do your own thing.
What this screen is really asking is how to partition your computer. Your computer keeps all of the information it stores on your hard drive, and this hard drive can be sub-divided into distinct 'partitions', which it treats entirely separately from one another.
By shrinking one partition, the one your existing operating system is on, and creating a new one, Ubuntu's installer can let you keep the existing system while still making Ubuntu available to you. This is what the Install Alongside option will do, and this is the safest option to choose while you're just getting started.
If you select this, every time your computer starts a menu will appear asking whether you want to start Ubuntu or your previous system - something we call dual booting. This way, if you still need your old operating system, whether for games or to occasionally use something familiar, you can just reboot and select its menu entry.
You can also partition the computer in many other ways, including creating separate partitions for important locations on your computer. This can have some benefits when it comes to keeping your data safe and your computer secure, but that's a topic for another time.

Security

The other screen you'll want to pay extra attention to is towards the end, when it asks you for a username, computer name and password. While it doesn't really matter what you choose to call your computer or user, you should think carefully about choosing a good pass-phrase, as it will greatly increase your security.
As we've often said here at LXF, the best thing to do is string together a few random words, such as 'LXFlovespinkponies', to create something memorable and difficult to crack. Try to use some upper- and some lower-case letters, and maybe add a few punctuation marks, too.
This screen also gives you the option to encrypt your home directory (more on the home directory shortly). This provides extra protection if you ever leave your laptop on a train - or in any other position where some nefarious foe might get physical access to your computer.

Move to Linux

After installing Ubuntu, rebooting your computer and selecting your brand new operating system from the boot menu, the first thing you'll want to do is make all your existing data accessible. This is a straightforward task.
Launch the Activities overview, and from there select the filing cabinet icon at the bottom of the dash. This will launch Nautilus, the default Ubuntu file manager. On the left of this window is a panel, and above all the bookmarked locations, such as Home, Pictures and Downloads, there should be an entry for a xxx Gb Filesystem.
This is the partition that your previous operating system lives on, and which contains all your old files and folders. Accessing them is a simple matter of double-clicking the entry, and then all your files and folders will appear in the main part of the window.
Most user documents and settings, on Windows 7 and Vista, are stored in the Users\<username> directory, on XP in Documents and Settings\<username>, while on Mac OS X they're in the /Users/ <username> directory. If you can't find this directory, check to see if there's more than one partition listed in the side panel.
Some manufacturers distribute their computers with a separate data partition by default, so you may need to look in these other partitions for your files.

Copying and linking

Once you've got access to the files, you may want to copy them across to the appropriate directory on your Ubuntu partition.
This works just like in all other operating systems: use the mouse to drag a box around all the files you want to copy, go to the Edit menu at the top of the window, and select Copy (or press Ctrl+C). Then, go to the location on your Ubuntu partition where you want to store the files, probably in your home folder, but maybe in the Documents, Music or Pictures subdirectories, and select Paste from the Edit menu (or press Ctrl+V).
Of course, this will work best if you're not constantly switching between operating systems. If you are, then you may find that you end up with files that are out of sync with one another. The best way to avoid this situation is to work on the files straight from the Windows partition; if you do this, however, keep in mind that you'll have to open the file manager and click the partition each time you want to use it.
There is a way to automate this, but it's beyond the scope of this feature. Take a look at the Getting Help with Linux box if you want to find out how to do this.

Importing data

The final thing you'll want to do to make your new operating system feel like home is import some of your files to the appropriate applications. For instance, now that your music files are accessible, you can import them in to Banshee's database, which will then automatically download cover artwork and keep everything organised for you.
To import your music into Banshee, launch the Activities overview and begin typing 'Banshee'. After a few characters, the Banshee icon should appear and be highlighted, at which point pressing Return will launch the program. Then, go to Media>Import Media, and select Choose Folders... in the window that appears.
This will launch a file browser, from which you can browse to your Windows partition, or the location on your Ubuntu partition where your music files are stored. Select the folder that your music is stored in, and then click Import at the bottom of the file browser. Banshee will then take care of everything else for you. (Note that importing your photos to Shotwell involves a similar process).
It's also worth knowing that Banshee comes with support for several online media stores turned on by default, so you can download new music from Amazon, get podcasts from Miro, or classic videos and audio from the Internet Archive. All of these are available at the bottom of Banshee's side panel.

Package managers

The penultimate step on our journey is to show you how to install new programs and keep old ones up to date. This is an area where Linux has been ahead of the game for years.
Rather than expecting you to go to third-party websites and download an executable file (.exe in Windows, .dmg in Mac OS X), Linux distributions provide package repositories, which store all the software you can install on that distribution. This is much more secure, since the packages in the repositories are all digitally signed to guarantee their origin. This means you can be sure who's providing the package, and that it hasn't been altered by someone with malicious intent (whereas on Windows and Mac OS X, there's little to guarantee the authenticity of the programs you install).
It also has the major advantage that all the software on your computer can be kept up to date automatically. So, every time there's a security fix, you'll immediately be notified about it and given the opportunity to install it. It's really a very good system.

Installing and updating

On Ubuntu, the repositories are accessed through the Software Centre. If you launch it from the Overview mode, you'll find yourself at the Software Centre's homescreen. It's very much like the iTunes app store - here, you can see featured applications, browse by category or search for applications.
Once you see one that takes your fancy, you can click its entry and you'll be taken to a more detailed description of the program. This page includes user reviews, version details, and a button that says Install.
Unsurprisingly, this Install button installs the application. Installed applications are marked by a green circle with a tick inside it, and instead of having an Install button, these have a Remove button.
There are loads of applications to explore, and as luck would have it, a few months back we ran a feature on the 50 Best Linux Apps to help you find some interesting targets to install on your new machine.
Updating applications uses an alternative program. From the Overview mode, you'll want to launch the Update Manager. You can click the Check button to look for new updates, and then the Install Update button to install them. It's rare that you'll need to restart your computer for updates to take effect, but you'll be notified if necessary.

Read more »