Hi. I am new to Linux and would like to know where to start. How and where do I get an OS to play around with and learn some basics. A work colleague suggested using Linux because it is more reliable than windows. I have tried using google to find an OS but there doesn't seem to be anything that describes how to start from scratch. Can anybody help me please.

Hi and welcome to LQ If you look to the right, you will see our distro review section - if you follow the link, you will see LQ member submitted reviews which should help you choose. You could also do a search of LQ for "best distro" or similar - you will see a huge nmber of discussions on this. Once you have chosen a distro, go to the "Download Linux" link to the right and grab the .iso file for your distro.

If you have never burned an iso disk, go to the LinuxQuestions portion of our Tutorials (link at top of page) and read up on how to burn your disk.

Good luck and we're here to help!

you may also take a look at this previous post:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=466732

you'll have some idea there.