Blast off with Linux
Install Ubuntu
Get Focal Fossa running on your machine, set up an incremental back-up regimen and start installing the huge free software ecosystem.
Having explored the Ubuntu live environment from the DVD you’ll want to get it installed without delay. So follow the guide just over yonder, and we’ll get started kitting out your new OS.
If you followed our Pi tutorial, or otherwise have access to a Nextcloud instance, then you can set that up from the Online Accounts screen that greets you on first boot. You can also connect Google and Microsoft accounts, if you want to sync your calendars, contacts or cloud storage. The latter being useful as a target for backups in what follows. You probably don’t want the live kernel patching service proffered in the next screen, and if you’re not okay with sending system info to
TAKE THE NON-CLOUD ROUTE
“Using unscheduled, ad hoc backups is good if you’re backing up to, for example, an external hard drive.”
Canonical or using Location Service, opt out of those in the next screens. You’ll be invited to explore the games, utilities and other treasures in the Ubuntu archives. But the first thing to do is sort out a back-up plan. Before you get to that though, there will be some updates to install which will take some time and require a reboot. This doesn’t happen often, don’t worry.