In choosing the distribution you should install, look at the following list of popular options and weigh their respective strengths and weaknesses against your particular needs.

	Redhat - Redhat is the most widely installed linux distribution. It provides a nice mix of stability and usability. Updates are frequent and timely. The default desktop system is Gnome, but KDE is an option. It also includes almost all of the standard server daemons such as http, dns, dhcp, nntp, and smb.
	SuSE - SuSE is a linux distribution very popular in Europe. It provides a staggering number of applications. Generally, it is comparable to the standard RedHat distribution except for a preference for the KDE desktop.
	Caldera - Caldera is a distribution that focuses on corporate and business needs. Most of its distributions are created with specialized server applications in mind, or for easy installation, or for mass imaging of many workstations.
	Mandrake - Mandrake touts itself as the the "friendly linux". It focuses on the user interface, packaging applications, desktop managers, and window managers for maximum ease. If you are terrified of the command line or are a grandmother...consider Mandrake.
	Debian - Debian has two selling points: first, it is the only fascistly free (as in speech) linux distribution and second, it is huge. Philosophically speaking, the purely free (as in speech) aspect of Debian means that all the software contained int he official distribution adheres stringently to the GPL or Gnu Public License. The GPL is a method of licensing software that requires the source code always be available for a particular piece of software. Linux itself is licensed under this license and therefore, all linux distributions have a substantial amount of GPL software. Debian has more than others. As for its size, a typical debian install consists of several CDs worth of data. Fortunately Debian provides a brilliant package management system called apt. It is, in my humble opinion, the best software package manager out there.
	Slackware - Slackware's strengths lie in its outlandish stability. The software contained in it, including the linux kernel itself, is typically several revisions behind the very latest. But the distribution is assembled such that once the box is up and running, it will stay up, barring any hardware issues, for a very long time. Slackware linux is also a very small, comparably speaking, distribution. Slow and steady, a slackware junkie my say, wins the race.
	Stampede - Stampede is a relatively new distribution that operates, roughly, in the same domain as Slackware but with the added twist of a committment to speed.
	Corel - Corel's distribution of linux was frequently described as the graphical man's distribution. Corel is, of course, the company that made WordPerfect. Its distribution has two strengths: first a incredibly simple and pretty installation process, and secondly the inclusion of a modern, full featured Office Suite that is not made by Microsoft.
	YellowDog - YellowDog linux is, as of very recently, the best linux distribution available for the Macintosh. It is based, essentially, on RedHat 6.1. It can be installed on nearly any kind of semi-modern mac.
	LinuxPPC - LinuxPPC was the first distribution ported for the Mac. It has some very Mac-centric features, but development is sometimes slow. Typically they release one new distribution per year. Like YellowDog, LinuxPPC includes packages from RedHat 6.1.

Determing where to do your installation from may sound trivial but the options available to you make the choice a matter of maximum efficiency, particularly considering the size of the average linux distribution. Essentially, you have three choices:

• Local - includes a copy of files on a local hard drive or from a locally mounted cd-rom.
• NFS - Network File System.
• FTP - File Transport Protocol.

Most of the time you will probably want to perform a local installation from CD. A typical installation spans at least two CDs, and transferring that much data across the most likely limited bandwidth of your home internet connection can, well, suck. Download an iso image of a distribution and burn it to a cd in the labs. If you are on campus, the best place to get an iso of the really fabulous RedHat distribution is at ftp://redhat.cac.washington.edu/redhat/redhat-7.1-en/iso/i386/. You can also download all the files and copy them to a local hard drive, then boot off a diskette and point the installer at the local drive.

NFS is a very fast network installation option, but it requires substantial networking and machine resources already in place. If you work for a corporation or some large-ish organization that uses linux, consider setting up a NFS server to serve installation images.

FTP is the option we will be using today. It is fast enough and the convenience of not needing multiple CDs plus being sure of getting the latest distribution rocks. The installation requires several things:

• A blank diskette
• rawrite.exe. A program to create a bootdisk image. It can be found here.
• bootnet.img. The boot image for the diskette. It can be found here.
• An internet connection
• A computer to install linux on
• A source location. One nice option is ftp://redhat.cac.washington.edu.

All you gotta do is run rawrite.exe, tell it where the image file is, then tell it where the diskette is, then boot off the diskette and follow the directions.

Perhaps the most difficult thing to negotiate with any given linux install is making room. Most likely you are running some variant of the Windows operating system. Now you must decide whether you want to take the plunge and only use linux, or whether you want a dual boot system.

• If you want to single boot, just make sure you have a gig or more (more or less) of free disk space.
• If you want to dual boot, you will most likely have to re-install Windows in order to free up some disk space for linux. You can try to use Partition Magic or other such programs, but you'll have to re-install Windows eventually anyway...so why not practice. :) Once you have made the determination that you definitely want to dual boot you must must must must must install Windows first. Windows is arrogant enough to not deign to be aware of other boot loaders. If you install linux, then Windows, you will most likely lose access to your linux distribution.

After resolving the dual-boot dilemma, you should think about how you want your partitions to work together. When I install, I like to have a partition that is accessible by both Windows and linux for data sharing. I typically format that data partition with fat32 (because linux is smart enough to dumb itself down to fat32 speak).

Further, you should think about how you want to allocate the linux system partitions. You can break them up however you like, but every system must have a swap partition (whose size is determined by completely subjective rules which I will not even attempt to understand or explain) and a / partition. During the install, if you choose one of the default system setups like workstation or server, the installer will set the partitions up for you, usually have many sub-partitions for the /usr, /home, /boot, and /root filesystems. Personally, I make four partitions: swap, /boot, /, and /mnt/data for my shared data partition. Today, we will make three: swap, /, and /boot.

Linux is, as you already know, a very powerful operating system. But the fact of the matter is that a networked linux machine is much more powerful than what it would be otherwise. If you plan on installing linux, you will probably most certainly want it networked. As such, you will need the following information (unless you will using a dial-up connection only):

• ip - dhcp or static
• dns
• netmask
• gateway

Most of this information can be obtained from your local friendly network administrator or from the Networking Control Panel in your Windows install.

If any of these terms confuse you, or you aren't sure what they do, take the Networking class.

Most people new to linux that want to install it make the fatal mistake of not really thinking about what they want to do with it. The mystique of linux implies to some people that it is dangerous, powerful, and exciting. While it is true that linux is all these things, you won't have the opportunity to share in the fun if you don't know what you want to do with it. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Do I want a Workstation or a Server?
• What services do I want to run?
• Who's going to maintain the box?
• What is the Acceptable Use Policy for my network?

Even if you don't know the answer to all these questions, don't worry. It is perfectly OK to install everything and challenge yourself to do everything at some time or another. Paradoxically, you will never learn to use linux if you don't use linux. The only thing you must be mindful of is the last question about AUPs. Security is of paramount concern. If you bring up a box, you are responsible for it and the damage it may inflict on other internet users. If there is a policy forbidding certain services, make sure you don't run them. Further, if you don't intend on using a particular service immediately, turn it off. I repeat, turn off non-essential services. Oh, did I mention that you should turn off non-essential services?

Even with all the text above, you'll find big questions unanswered about installing linux. You can find more documentation about installation (and other things) in the following places:

• Books, including the RedHat Installation Manual, some of which can be found here.
• The Linux Documentation Project and other web resources.
• System documentation - man, et al