This page started on March 10, 2008.
This page last updated on March 11, 2008.
The purpose of this page is to put into one place my work on Kubuntu 8.04. Kubuntu is a distribution of LINUX and the 8.04 represents a release date for April (04) of 2008 (8) with the year being first. At the present time the release is in alpha stages, meaning that it is not ready for prime-time release. But it is almost there, as the release date is in late April.
So, if you choose to do this, then you are working with an operating system that is being fine tuned for release and will have almost daily changes made to it as you and I find problems and report them.
I have been a fan of UNIX since 1972 and LINUX in the past 8-10 years as it has become stable and the microprocessors have gotten fast enough to do some serious work. I'll talk about that later.
Another reason for doing this is to increase computer literacy. A large number of people on this planet think that they are computer literate because they can use a mouse and play games on the computer. We want to know more about how computers operate and the general areas in which we can be more productive in anything we do.
The first thing you need to do is get a copy of the basic operating system to install on your computer(s). There are many ways to do this.
The first is to use your favorite browser and go to the following link and download an image of the software. Then you will make a CD to use for installation.
On the web page you will see, at the bottom, a group of lines that look like the following (this snapshot taken March 10, 2008), so your screen will reflect a date closer to when you get to this section.
MD5SUMS 10-Mar-2008 05:48 115 MD5SUMS.gpg 10-Mar-2008 05:48 189 hardy-desktop-amd64.iso 10-Mar-2008 05:47 672M Desktop CD for 64-bit PC (AMD64) computers (standard download) hardy-desktop-amd64.list 10-Mar-2008 05:47 3.1K Desktop CD for 64-bit PC (AMD64) computers (file listing) hardy-desktop-amd64.manifest 10-Mar-2008 05:37 24K Desktop CD for 64-bit PC (AMD64) computers (contents of live filesystem) hardy-desktop-i386.iso 10-Mar-2008 05:48 660M Desktop CD for PC (Intel x86) computers (standard download) hardy-desktop-i386.list 10-Mar-2008 05:48 3.7K Desktop CD for PC (Intel x86) computers (file listing) hardy-desktop-i386.manifest 10-Mar-2008 05:31 24K Desktop CD for PC (Intel x86) computers (contents of live filesystem)
At this time you make a decision as to which of the '.iso' files you need. If you have a 64-bit microprocessor, then you will want
hardy-desktop-amd64.isoand if you have a 32-bit microprocessor you'll want
hardy-desktop-i386.isoOf course, these CD images are rather large and you need DSL or better to get this done in a reasonable time. I was able to get mine in less than 20 minutes, but then again I spare no expense on my Internet access.
You just left-click on the filename on the left-hand side of the list and your browser will ask you what you want to do with the file. Just save to disk and make a note where it is being placed so that you can get to it after it is downloaded for transfer to disc as described in the next section.
If you have a utility to do FTP, then this would be the fastest way to get the file downloaded. But this requires a knowledge about your current system and the software loaded on it. Since I don't have the space to cover the topic here, do a Google for FTP for whatever O/S you are running. There are some free programs out there and you may have to try more than one to find the right one for you.
For LINUX, I use this program all the time. There are two reasons. It is the fastest I've found and it has an option to restart and begin where it left off if communications are interrupted for any number of reasons.
To use this program, you type in the following line from a Konsole window in LINUX. I'd do this in the directory Desktop or one that you have especially for this project.
wget -c http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/daily-live/current/hardy-desktop-amd64.isoor
wget -c http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/daily-live/current/hardy-desktop-i386.iso
If you don't have highspeed Internet access, then you can order the disc from an online source after it becomes available. In this case, kubuntu 8.04 will not be available until after April 27th, 2008 from any online source. In the meantime you can get kubuntu 7.10 on a CD for $1.95 plus $2.95 for postage and handling. So you might want to order a couple more CDs or DVDs at the same time to reduce the cost of shipping for each. I do a very small service that requires me to mail CDs and I can tell you that $2.95 is not a bad price as the USPS is going up on their rates, again, in May of 2008.
Now here you will have to be computer literate. I get this question all the time about the k7qo.iso file on the Internet. The .iso file is a copy of the file system from a disc image. You can not just transfer it to a CD and use it. You have to use something like Roxio, Nero, or other CD burning software. This software has an option to take an ISO file and convert it to another format and write it to the CD. All I can tell you to do is again get on the Internet and Google for the keywords like ISO CD burning options.
I did a quick search and here are two example pages on the web that discuss how to get the ISO file on your hard drive written to a CD. Let me know if you find any better discussions or help.
Here is the nice thing about LINUX. I go to the directory where the disc image is and type in the line:
k3b hardy-desktop-amd64.isoand the CD burning software starts up and does all the work for me. I just insert a blank CD into the drive and close it and hit the start button for the program. It's that simple.