Installing Linux

Recent years have been marked by a significant rise in the adoption of Linux as the operating system of choice for both server and desktop computing platforms. From enterprise-grade servers and large-scale cloud infrastructures to individual workstations and small-factor home appliances, Linux has become an ever-present platform for a wide range of applications.

The prevalence of Linux, perhaps now more than ever, brings into the spotlight much-needed administration skills for a growing community of system administrators and developers. In this book, we take a practical approach to Linux administration essentials, with the modern-day system administrator, DevOps team member, and developer in mind.

In this second edition, we will adopt a slightly different approach to installing Linux. As this is a book meant for more advanced readers, we will no longer discuss the basic aspects of installing the operating system in such detail as in the first edition. The information has been updated to the most relevant aspects available as of the beginning of 2023 with regard to operating system versioning.

In this first chapter, we’ll guide you through the Linux installation process, either on physical hardware (bare metal) or using a Virtual Machine (VM).

Here are the topics we cover in this chapter:

• Introducing the Linux operating system
• Installing Linux – the basics
• Enabling the Windows Subsystem for Linux
• Installing Linux – the advanced stages
• Linux distributions – a practical guide