Before installing Linux, you should answer the following questions:

Which distribution will you choose? As previously mentioned (Introduction to linux), you have a large number of choices.

What sort of installation should be performed? You have a couple of choices here because you can install Linux natively on a system or install the distro as a virtual machine (VM).

If Linux is installed natively, is the hardware supported? In this case, you may want to shy away from newer hardware, particularly on newer laptops, as they may have components that are not yet supported by Linux.

If Linux is installed as a VM, does the system have enough resources to support both a host OS and a virtual machine OS? Typically this comes down to a question of how much RAM the system has. In most cases, a system with at least 8GB of RAM should be able to support at least one VM.

Which Linux Distro Do You Want To Install ?

You might be asking yourself, “How hard can it be to pick a distribution? How many distros can there be?” The simple answer to the second question is “a lot.” At any given time, there are about 250 active Linux distributions. However, don’t let that number scare you off!

Although there are many distros, a large majority of them are quite esoteric, catering to very specific situations. While you are learning Linux, you shouldn’t concern yourself with these sorts of distributions.

A handful of distributions are very popular and make up the bulk of the Linux installations in the world. However, a complete discussion of the pros and cons of each of these popular distros is beyond the scope of this post. For the purpose of learning Linux, the experts recommend you install one or more of the following distros:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Fedora, or CentOS

These distributions are called Red Hat–based distros because they all share a common set of base code from Red Hat’s release of Linux. There are many others that share this code, but these are generally the most popular. Note that both Fedora and CentOS are completely free, while RHEL is a subscription-based distro.

Linux Mint, Ubuntu, or Debian

These distributions are called Debian-based distros because they all share a common set of base code from Debian’s release of Linux. There are many others that share this code, but these are generally the most popular.

Kali

This is a security-based distribution that will be used in a different post. Consider this distribution to be a tool that enables you to determine what security holes are present in your environment.

Native or Virtual Machine?

If you have an old computer available, you can certainly use it to install Linux natively (this is called a bare-metal or native installation). However, given the fact that you probably want to test several distributions, virtual machine (VM) installs are likely a better choice.

A VM is an operating system that thinks it is installed natively, but it is actually sharing a system with a host operating system. (There is actually a form of virtualization in which the VM is aware it is virtualized, but that is beyond the scope of this post and not necessary for learning Linux.) The host operating system can be Linux, but it could also be macOS or Microsoft Windows.

In order to create VMs, you need a product that provides a hypervisor. A hypervisor is software that presents “virtual hardware” to a VM. This includes a virtual hard drive, a virtual network interface, a virtual CPU, and other components typically found on a physical system. There are many different hypervisor software programs, including VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer, and Oracle VirtualBox. You could also make use of hosted hypervisors, which are cloud-based applications. With these solutions, you don’t even have to install anything on your local system. Amazon Web Services is a good example of a cloud-based service that allows for hosted hypervisors.

Much debate in the security industry revolves around whether virtual machines are more secure than bare-metal installations. There is no simple answer to this question because many aspects need to be considered. For example, although virtual machines may provide a level of abstraction, making it harder for a hacker to be aware of their existence, they also result in another software component that needs to be properly secured.

Typically, security isn’t the primary reason why an organization uses virtual machines (better hardware utilization is usually the main reason). However, if you choose to use virtual machines in your environment, the security impact should be carefully considered and included in your security policies. For the purposes of learning Linux, we will use Oracle VirtualBox. It is freely available and works well on multiple platforms, including Microsoft Windows (which is most likely the operating system you already have installed on your own system). Oracle VirtualBox can be downloaded from https://www.virtualbox.org. The installation is fairly straightforward: just accept the default values or read the installation documentation (https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads#manual).

After you have installed Oracle VirtualBox and have installed some virtual machines, the Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager will look similar to the following image:

How To Install a Distro In A Virtual Machine

If you are using Oracle VirtualBox, the first step to installing a distro is to add a new “machine.” This is accomplished by taking the following steps in the Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager:

  • Click Machine and then New.
  • Provide a name for the VM; for example, enter Fedora in the Name: box. Note that the Type and Version boxes will likely change automatically. Type should be Linux. Check the install media you downloaded to see if it is a 32-bit or 64-bit operating system (typically this info will be included in the filename). Most modern versions are 64 bit.
  • Set the Memory Size value by using the sliding bar or typing the value in the MB box. Typically a value of 4196MB (about 4GB) of memory is needed for a full Linux installation to run smoothly.
  • Leave the option “Create a virtual hard disk now” marked.
  • Click the Create button.
  • On the next dialog box, you will choose the size of the virtual hard disk. The default value will likely be 8.00GB, which is a bit small for a full installation. A recommended minimum value is 12GB.
  • Leave the “Hard disk file type” set to VDI (Virtual Hard Disk). Change “Storage on physical hard disk” to Fixed Size.
  • Click the Create button.

After a short period of time (a few minutes), you should see your new machine in the list on the left side of the Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager. Before continuing to the next step, make sure you know the location of your installation media (the *.iso file of the Linux distro you downloaded).

To start the installation process, click the new machine and then click the Start button. See following image for an example.

In the next window that appears, you need to select the installation media. In the Select Start-up Disk dialog box, click the small icon that looks like a folder with a green “up arrow.” Then navigate to the folder that contains the installation media, select it, and click the Open button. When you return to the dialog box, click the Start button.

Once the installation starts, the options and prompts really depend on which distribution you are installing. These can also change as newer versions of the distributions are released. As a result of how flexible these installation processes can be, we recommend you follow the installation guides provided by the organization that released the distribution.

Instead of providing specific instructions, we offer the following recommendations:

Accept the defaults

Typically the default options work well for your initial installations. Keep in mind that you can always reinstall the operating system later.

Don’t worry about specific software.

One option may require that you select which software to install. Again, select the default provided. You can always add more software later.

Don’t forget that password

You will be asked to set a password for either the root account or a regular user account. On a production system, you should make sure you set a password that isn’t easy to compromise. However, on these test systems, pick a password that is easy to remember, as password security isn’t as big of a concern in this particular case. If you do forget your password, recovering passwords will be discussed in future (or you can reinstall the Linux OS).

Summary

After reading this post you should also know what a Linux distribution is and have an idea of the questions you should answer prior to installing Linux and also how to install linux.