Getting started with Linux: choose, install, use and update

Updated November 2026

Getting started with Linux today takes an afternoon, not a weekend of floppy disks. You pick a distribution, try it from a USB stick without touching your disk, install it if you like it, and then learn a few habits: install software from the distribution's store or package manager, take the updates, and know where to look things up. This page covers each step.

The classic book Linux Installation and Getting Started, from the mid-1990s, is kept by the Linux Documentation Project at tldp.org/LDP/gs. It is a good read about early Linux, but its installation steps no longer apply.

What Linux is, in one paragraph

Strictly, Linux is the kernel: the core program that talks to the hardware and runs everything else. It was started by Linus Torvalds in 1991 and is released under the GNU General Public License, version 2. What you install is a distribution: the kernel plus a desktop, programs, an installer, a package manager and a team that ships updates. There are hundreds; a handful cover most users. For more background, see the Linux FAQ and the Unix and Internet fundamentals HOWTO.

Choose a distribution

For a first install, choose a popular distribution with a large user base, so that the answer to your question is already online. Any of these is a safe start:

Good first distributions (as of November 2026)
Distribution	Current release	Good for
Ubuntu	26.04 LTS (5 years of standard security updates; the newer 26.10 is a short-lived interim release)	The default choice: wide hardware and software support, huge help community
Linux Mint	22.3 (based on Ubuntu 24.04, supported until April 2029)	People coming from Windows; the Cinnamon desktop feels familiar
Fedora Workstation	45	Recent software and the latest GNOME desktop; a KDE Plasma edition exists
Debian	13 "trixie"	Stability; changes slowly, runs well on older machines

openSUSE (Leap and the rolling Tumbleweed) is another solid choice. Arch Linux is rolling and minimal; you build the system yourself, which teaches a lot but is not the easiest first step. Desktop choice matters more than distribution for daily use: GNOME is clean and gesture-based, KDE Plasma is more like Windows and very configurable, Cinnamon and Xfce are traditional and light.

Check your computer

Ubuntu 26.04 Desktop asks for a 2 GHz dual-core processor, 6 GB of memory and 25 GB of disk space. Debian with a desktop installs in as little as 1 GB of memory (2 GB recommended) and 10 GB of disk, so lighter systems still revive older PCs. Most laptops and desktops work out of the box; the usual trouble spots are very new Wi-Fi chips, some fingerprint readers, and NVIDIA graphics (which may need the vendor driver). See the Hardware HOWTO for how to check before you buy or install.

Try it, then install

Download the ISO image from the distribution's own site (ubuntu.com, linuxmint.com, fedoraproject.org, debian.org) and check its checksum.
Write it to a USB stick of 8 GB or more. On Windows or macOS, use a tool the distribution recommends; on Linux you can use dd, but first confirm the stick's device name with lsblk: writing to the wrong device erases that disk instead. Writing the image erases the stick. Details are in the boot media HOWTO.
Boot from the stick (often F12, F10 or Esc at power-on opens a boot menu) and choose the "try" or live mode. Test Wi-Fi, sound, the screen, suspend and the touchpad.
If everything works, start the installer from the live desktop. Back up first. To keep Windows alongside Linux, read the dual-boot page before you start, and turn off Windows Fast Startup.

The full walk-through, including UEFI, Secure Boot, partitioning and disk encryption, is in the Installation HOWTO.

Desktop basics

Your files live in your home directory, /home/yourname, with the usual Documents, Downloads and Pictures folders. Everything outside it belongs to the system, and changing it needs your password. Settings (Wi-Fi, displays, printers, keyboard layout) are in the desktop's Settings app. GNOME and KDE Plasma use Wayland by default, the modern display system that replaces X11 (Plasma 6.8, released in October 2026, no longer includes an X11 session; older Plasma versions in LTS distributions still offer one); older X11 programs still run through a compatibility layer called Xwayland. For layouts, fonts, languages, sound and printers, see keyboards, fonts, Unicode and languages, sound and printing.

Terminal basics

You can use Linux without the terminal, but a few commands make many jobs faster, and most help online is written as commands. Open the Terminal app and try these. Nothing here changes the system:

First commands
Command	What it does
`pwd`	Print the folder you are in
`ls -l`	List files with sizes, dates and permissions
`cd Documents`, `cd ..`, `cd`	Go into a folder, up one level, back home
`mkdir notes`	Create a folder
`cp a.txt b.txt`, `mv a.txt notes/`	Copy, move or rename
`rm b.txt`	Delete (no recycle bin: it is gone)
`less file.txt`	Read a file page by page (q quits)
`man ls`, `ls --help`	The manual and a short help text for any command

Two keys save a lot of typing: Tab completes file and command names, and the up arrow recalls earlier commands. Ctrl+C stops a running command. Commands that change the system start with sudo, which asks for your password and runs one command as the administrator. Read a command before you paste it from a web page, especially one with sudo. When you are ready for more, try the Bash introduction and the prompt HOWTO.

Installing software

On Linux you rarely download programs from random web sites. The distribution's software store (GNOME Software, KDE Discover, Mint's Software Manager) or its package manager installs programs from signed repositories and keeps them updated with the rest of the system:

# Debian, Ubuntu, Mint
sudo apt update
sudo apt install vlc
apt search "image editor"
# Fedora
sudo dnf install vlc        # some codecs and apps need extra repositories
# Arch
sudo pacman -S vlc

Many desktop apps are also published as Flatpaks on Flathub, which work the same on every distribution. Ubuntu also uses Snap packages from its own store. To add Flathub where it is not set up yet (here on Debian):

sudo apt install flatpak
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

Flathub's instructions finish with a restart. On GNOME you can also install the gnome-software-plugin-flatpak package so Flathub apps show up in GNOME Software; Flathub itself suggests installing Bazaar, a Flatpak app store. Avoid mixing many sources for the same program; one copy is easier to keep updated.

Keep it updated

Updates fix security holes, so take them. The desktop shows a notification when updates are ready; accept them and restart when it asks, since a new kernel only takes effect after a reboot. From the terminal:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade     # Debian, Ubuntu, Mint
sudo dnf upgrade                         # Fedora
flatpak update                           # Flatpak apps

Plan for the next release too. An Ubuntu LTS gets five years of standard updates; Fedora moves to a new version far more often, and the desktop offers the upgrade. For more on securing a desktop, see the Security HOWTO.

Getting help

On your machine: man command, command --help, and journalctl -b -p err for errors since boot.
Your distribution: Ask Ubuntu and Ubuntu Discourse, Linux Mint forums, Fedora Discussion, Debian forums and Debian documentation.
Reference: the ArchWiki explains most programs in depth, and is useful even if you do not run Arch.

A good question gets a quick answer. Include your distribution and version (cat /etc/os-release), what you did, the exact error message, and what you have already tried. For running and looking after the system once you are settled in, continue with the system administrator's guide.