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.
If you’re coming from a Windows background (in which case, congratulations on taking this first step), the most obvious difference is the lack of a Start menu equivalent. The flagship edition of Ubuntu uses the Gnome desktop, which, as far as GUIs go, is as far from Windows as you could get. There are other Ubuntu flavours that use other desktop environments (some of which have a traditional applications menu) – more on those later. In Ubuntu, frequently accessed programs are accessed from the Dock to the left. If you have a high-resolution display and everything looks too small, right-click the desktop, select Display Settings and then adjust the scaling. Your first Linux experience should not involve eye strain, after all.
Accessibility is now at the heart of the Ubuntu setup, making it (er) accessible for all.