Section 2.1. Introduction

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2.1. Introduction

You may be reading this book in order to learn to use Linux in a place that already has Linux computers available for you to use. In that case, this chapter will give you an appreciation of what it took to set them up, but you can just start using Linux without having to do your own installation.

It is just as likely that you either need or want to run Linux on a computer of your own (at home, perhaps). In this case, you will need to get Linux and install it before you can begin your "real work."

So many choices are available to you, it may seem overwhelming. Because you are free to choose any Linux distribution you wish, I cannot possibly go through a step-by-step installation process for all of them. If I were to pick a single distribution to cover, this book would be much less useful to anyone who picked a different distribution (which, by definition, would be most people). In order to be most useful to the widest possible audience, we will not limit our discussions to any single distribution, but instead, we'll examine the myriad of issues and decisions you will make on your way to installing any distribution of Linux on your system. You should consult the specific installation documentation for your chosen distribution.