I am not very computer literate but can someone please advise me (in plain simple English!). I have a computer with an Intel G630 Processor, 4GIG RAM, 500 GIG Hard Drive and running Windows 8. I wish to instal a Linux Operating System alongside Windows 8. In other words, I must be able to choose an operating system everytime I start the computer. Which Linux OS is the most easiest to master for an absolute novice? I tried to download Ubuntu as well as Linux Mint but gave up midway as the download was extremely slow. And talk of burning the ISO download file to a disk was simply greek to me!. Where can I get a ready-to-instal installation disk of these operating sytems or another together with detailed installation instructions? Can someone help? Thanks.

You can buy Linux disks here:

http://www.osdisc.com/index.html

Yeah, you'd probably do well to start with Ubuntu or Linux Mint, to install alongside Win8.

Hi

This any good for you
http://ubuntu-uk.org/free-cds/
http://www.linuxmint.com/store.php

Simply download the ISO and burn it onto a disc at the slowest speed. You will then have an installation disc.

Dual-booting is a more complex procedure. I doubt I could give you an easy-to-understand answer.

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Note that if you choose to burn an ISO, you have to make sure you tell your burner program to burn from the ISO image.

How that option appears on the menu differs in different programs; see the help files or manual. When you do this, the burner recreates the file structure of the original CD (and ISO is simply an image of the original CD).

If you simply copy the ISO to the blank CD, what you will have is a copy of the ISO file, not a bootable CD.

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If you told us where you live, we could point you at a local supplier.

If you google for "linux user group [city state]" you may turn up a local LUG who can help you. Mine has been known to give away CDs.

search about your local university
there is likely a student group

or your local Library ( if it is a large one )

Windows 8 might be a problem
windows 7 is VERY easy to dual boot
But with Windows 8 ,Microsoft is trying to enforce some restrictions on how YOU can use your hardware YOU bought and paid for and OWN .

Every major distro has instructions on dual booting with windows
So you will need to do a bit of reading

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Hi Mike!

Welcome to Linux Questions!

You sure have a lot of good answers!
I too have gotten great help here.

So; what might you try?

You need at least one unused partition on the harddisk to install another system on.

Although the installation for systems like Mint or *buntu is not difficult, it is tricky to give an answer which will work 100% (regarding the circumstances of your setup aswell as your lack of knowledge). It is not really "geeky" but a few basics about, for example, harddisks and harddisk partitions, should be known in advance. If you don't know how to burn a CD then i assume you don't know much about disk partitioning either. Try to find a buddy/neighbor/colleague who is willing to sit down with you for a few hours to teach you some basics while installing the thing for you.

No problemo... and it's free!

http://www.imgburn.com/

Look for Linux magazines, they give away Linux distros on CDs or DVDs.

A million thanks to everyone who kindly responded. I appreciate all the advice. I have managed to locate a local LUG and a member has offered to come over and install Ubuntu on my computer and bring me tutorials. Once again thanks everyone.

another suggestion could be buying a pc with linux oem pre-installed. a friend of mine bought a laptop from hp with ubuntu pre-loaded (but then you mite find difficulty --and more cost-- in trying to install windows-8 on one of those machines).

edit: i just had a thought... newer pc's dont come with cd-rom's so a disk would be worthless on that machine. i think you would need to create a bootable live-usb (maybe if you search online you can find a company that sells usb flash drives with linux loaded on them.

you would then need to change the bios so that it boots from the usb drive (i've heard stories that oem's prevent installing alternate os's on some laptops).

If you purchased that computer with Windows 8 already installed, you should do some research about Windows "secure (our marketshare) boot thingee.

Linux news sources are publishing frequent items about it, as the developments keep coming.