Hopefully, by now you’ve managed to create and boot H an Ubuntu installation medium. If not, turn back and follow the instructions in the box forthwith. The first thing you see is a brutalist menu from which you should select the first option (Try Or Install Ubuntu). If things go wrong, try again with one of the other options (use Safe Graphics mode if you see graphical corruption or a blank screen). Once it’s loaded, you hear a welcoming chime and are asked to select localisation settings, connect to your Wi-Fi (or LAN), and set up any accessibility options (such as the zoom tool, screen reader and sticky keys). You might then be offered an update to the installer, which you should accept.
Next you’re asked whether to Try Ubuntu or Install it. Rather than dive straight into the installation, we first recommend trying out the live environment. It doesn’t touch your system drive(s), unless you ask it to – so it’s totally risk-free, unless you take risks. The live environment runs from a compressed filesystem and without much in the way of graphical acceleration (depending on your hardware), so it won’t quite be as snappy [is this foreshadowing? – ed] as the real thing.