Abstract :
If you´ve never installed an OS it can seem a daunting prospect, but it´s generally perfectly straightforward, if rather boring. You select a few obvious options, language, location etc, and then sit around while the installer does the real work. In practice, a Windows installation is a bit more of a drag because, once you´ve got the OS sort of installed, you have to install the various device drives to finish the job. With Linux, the drivers are, in principle, installed along with the OS, making everything much easier and faster. The author recounts his problems keeping his new Linux workstation up and running.