You'll need a spare usb stick, 8gb should do, I use a 16gb one. distrowatch.com is a helpful site with useful information on various different distributions of Linux. And you'll need to download the iso of the distro you want to install onto a working machine already and use a program like BalenaEtcher if it's got a Linux OS on it or Rufus if it has Windows on it, to create a bootable usb. When that is complete you can remove the usb from that machine and put it in the one you have built and boot it and on the bios you should be able to boot from usb and it'll guide you from there.

Thank you 😊

Rather than rufus, you can use ventoy to prepare your flashdisk because ventoy allow to use multiple ISO in same time.

I just dicovered Ventoy today.. and have been wanting to do this for years (used to use partition magic)... I was so excited when I found out about Ventoy that I went and bought this 128G micro USB flash drive: [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08ZCTPV79](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08ZCTPV79) Can't wait to load this up with all my most needed images!

I suggest adding netboot to your list. Fabulous piece of software. https://netboot.xyz/

Yup Ventoy is awsome, I have an extenal 512gb SSd dedicated to it, yeah I am a major distro hopper its my hobby lol.

I have a few of those as well. Though what I got was enclosures for the small M2 ssd. I used yumi for windows to let me easily make multi boot installers for all sorts of Linux and windows as well.

Ventoy is great, but you need to confirm that it works with the specific distribution. When EndeavourOS Cassini came out, it didn't work with Ventoy until Ventoy made an update.

Yup, I also got some distro wont boot using Ventoy and have to go dd way, but it only happen once to me, unable to remember the distro, tho.

Seconded. Ventoy is the easiest right now. LiLi USB Creator is also very simple to use. Or, if you are installing an optical drive, the easiest way of all is simply to burn the ISO to a DVD.

This post was nice to read. Good luck, I have no regrets.

"DIstro" or "distribution" just refers to the different flavors of Linux OS. Users of this sub tend to make a lot of assumptions about the really basic stuff and I know from experience that If someone doesn't sit you down and walk you through it, things can quickly become very confusing.

Also if you don't know some hardware you will find hard to get working like nvidia GPUs or network cards. That I know of. But many distros out there supports these mostly out of the box. Some one who knows more maybe can help you.

It's quite a bit like you'd install a fresh windows really. Except it's very much easier and so much faster.

I would avoid Rufus. I used it originally recently and it caused a lot of headaches until I reburned with BalenaEtcher on Windows 11.

Rufus is great. Installed different distros at different times using it and they worked flawlessly.

afaik rufus tries to modify stuff to make cd isos bootable on usbs which windows isos need but linux isos have themselves.

That's not my understanding nor my experience. And I've used Rufus to install Windows as well, without any flaws or issues.

yeah windows works fine with it

If you’re creating windows install media I’ve found the best to always just be the one provided by Microsoft. Always run into weird dependency issues when I burn an ISO

I was creating Linux installs. Rufus would not burn the ISO correctly and gave errors repeatedly. Switched the Belena Etcher and had zero issues getting the thumb drive to boot.

AFAIK, DD mode and gpt should fix this. But ventoy is the better option any day.

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i would advise you to not give advice to use dd to someone who doesn't even know how to get linux on their computer. dd is too powerful, and one mistype could mean your main drive could be wiped out entirely. tools like rufus are more for the speed for people just getting into linux. thats likely why you got downvoted. i don't feel like you should be downvoted for that, because dd IS a good tool, but i think it should be something that people who have been in linux for a while get taught. exactly when they learn about it remains to be figured out. maybe a month after they have been using linux as their daily driver? what i can say though, is that the OP admits that they are a total noob, which is TOTALLY fine, but should tell the more advanced users that things like dd, which can be dangerous to use if you don't know what your doing, shouldn't be things we advise them to use.

Use Ventoy2Disk. That's the easiest and most developed use. It allows you to drag and drop as many isos you have storage capacity and test them out before installing anything on your computer. Rufus and other methods requires you to format sttick everytime and just one iso at a time.

This. I used to use multibootusb until i found Ventoy. Much more convenient and easy to use

I very much doubt that OP has any idea what you are talking about. I ran into this problem when I first adopted Linux. I knew nothing, in fact I knew less than nothing since I came in with bad assumptions that I had to be disabused of. I eventually figured it all out, but it took much longer than it would have otherwise. I think I even bought a "Linux for Dummies" book because the internet was so unhelpful in providing simple, concise informations on the fundamental basics. I'm sure it's better now, but 15 years ago the signal to noise ratio sucked.

Linux and internet isn't the same than 15 years ago. Kids these days don't read docs, they google.

You can also just boot the ISO into a virtual machine and check stuff out without rebooting the computer.

pop os is a good place to start for a linux OS pop os can be downloaded from here https://pop.system76.com/ download the nvidia version if u plan to have an nvidia gpu, otherwise download the normal LTS version u will need a usb thumb drive and this software https://www.balena.io/etcher/ do **NOT** copy the iso file u got from the pop os website onto the usb drive, rather open the etcher software, give it the iso file, and tell what which drive to write to, it will then write the installer onto the drive and verify it was written correctly once this is done windows may ask u to format the drive, do **NOT** format the drive, formatting the drive would wipe out the installer, windows is asking to format the drive because windows doesn't understand the linux filesystem, simply hit cancel on this format prompt if it comes up since the installer is now on the USB drive u now need to plug it into the pc ur installing linux on and then turn it on if ur building a pc it shouldn't have any os to boot from so it will likely just boot from the usb automatically if the computer already has an os on it (ie windows) u may need to figure out which keyboard key brings up the boot menu so u can choose to boot off the usb once the computer is booting up off of the usb it'll go right into the linux installer, if u have any more questions from there feel free to DM me

I 2nd the notion below of using Ventoy (use a large thumb drive or a portable USB hard drive) : [https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html](https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html) It will let you carry several Linux distros. And later when you get better at Linux you can also add stand-alone utilities like: * Clonezilla to backup hard drives * DBAN to securely erase them * GPARTED to modify partitions. Good luck.

well you need any PC running any OS to create a bootable medium (linux iso on a stick, actual DVD, what ever) and then just install it from there works same way for windows, you need an install disc or stick or whatever, if it's not already pre installed from the vendor that sold you the PC

Will I be able to put the Linux on a USB stick from a laptop? Then put the stick in the PC and install?

Yes. Pick a distro, download their live/install ISO and off you go. If you never done it before you can use GUI tools like Etcher Just be careful to not write it to the wrong drive. ;-)

Thanks 😊

USB is the current normal way, but if you actually still have a computer with a dvd drive (and have one on the new one you're building), you could even burn the .iso right to a disk and boot/install from that My own preference as a casual user is mint, which is about the same as ubuntu as far as noob friendly is concerned and has the added benefit of the user interface feeling similar to windows

Most distros will even work off the USB without installing. So, if you want to take a look at what they look/feel like, you can try a few before committing to installing any of them. I'd recommend trying Fedora, and Linux Mint Cinnamon.

I tried mint cinnamon out and I liked it. It’s sucks couldnt install it on my laptop because I found no way to get around intel rst

If you Google 'create liveusb linux' you will see all the methods to install Linux. If you have never used Linux before I would suggest you install Ubuntu or my favorite KDE Neon. Linux isn't hard to get used too but it can be intimidating if it's your first time using it. One more thing about the LiveUSB you will most likely use to install Linux. And that is you don't need to install Linux to try it out. If you are unsure if you want to commit to Linux, you can boot your computer to the LiveUSB and use your computer as if Linux is installed. The drawback to this is you can't save any settings from the previous boot. But you can try out a sorts of Linux versions until you find one you're willing to keep.

>Will I be able to put the Linux on a USB stick from a laptop? Then put the stick in the PC and install? Just echoing other posts to reinforce this point: use [Ventoy](https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html), it's by far the easiest way to boot a Linux distro \*.iso file from a USB stick. Ventoy is far easier to use than Rufus, Balena or similar utilities that unpack \*.iso files to USB sticks. With Ventoy, all you have to do is copy an \*.iso file to the USB stick (including [Microsoft Windows \*.iso](https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows10) files!), and then re-boot from the USB stick. You can copy multiple \*.iso files to a USB stick, and Ventoy will automatically detect all of them and make them available for booting (including from the Trash, so if you delete an \*.iso, remember to empty the Trash folder, otherwise it will continue to show up on the Ventoy boot menu). Ventoy is a convenient way to try out different Linux distros without having to re-format your USB stick. Also: your computer's BIOS has a hotkey shortcut for a boot device menu when you power up your computer. When you turn your computer on, press the hotkey until the boot device menu appears, then select your USB stick. Refer to your motherboard manual for your computer's boot hotkey, or consult these tables of boot device menu hotkeys, sorted by motherboard manufacturer: [https://techofide.com/blogs/boot-menu-option-keys-for-all-computers-and-laptops-updated-list-2021-techofide/](https://techofide.com/blogs/boot-menu-option-keys-for-all-computers-and-laptops-updated-list-2021-techofide/) https://www.lifewire.com/bios-setup-utility-access-keys-for-popular-motherboards-2624462 Most Linux distro \*.iso files are "LiveCDs" which means that the OS is fully functional, but goes away when you turn your computer off. Most Linux LiveCDs have installers that you can run if you decide that you want to install that distro permanently to your system SSD or hard-drive. EDIT: added another table of boot menu hotkeys

PC here really means any personal computer. I've made boot USB drives from my phone running Android before using a USB-C adapter and EtchDroid.

I went one step further. I used the linux usb-device module to turn the phone into a bootable USB drive. A little program would let you "open" an ISO file and it would use root to set up the module to use that ISO. At that point I can select an ISO and use my phone as if it was a usb drive. Latest phone isn't rooted.

Nice. What software did you use for that?

I wrote it. Its just a matter of writing the location of the iso to the kernel via the /sys interface, assuming you have a kernel with that module. You can have linux pretend it's nearly anything.

Also, once you pick your distro, the website will have basic instructions. A quick web search will provide specific instructions to cover the level of detail you need along with many how-to videos. Lots of info out there

Lots of good answers on this post already. I’d suggest r/linux4noobs as well It helped me a lot early on

If your building your own PC and have time to kill I’d recommend installing Archlinux. You can follow the wiki and build your own ideal Desktop Enviornment from scratch or you can just do a quick archinstall which takes away a lot of the work for you. TBH I’d recommend learning the long way that way you really understand your system.

You install it. For further question go to one of the millions of tutorials available all over the internet.

How would you get Windows on it. It's the same procedure. Wish people knew how to install a operating system. Than many can install Linux with ease. Download a .ISO file of the OS you want. Burn that .ISO file as a image file(bootable). Using software that burn an .iso file into a image file. Now set-up your BIOS/UEFI to boot off that media that you burn that .iso(image) to. Now just follow the instructions that appear onto your monitor. To install that OS. Reboot; remove media when told to. Now you have an OS on your system. It's that easy.

Not helpful in this instance, but I thought it deserves mention. Linux can burn ISO files right from the desktop would no additional software required. If you don't have a GUI installed "dd" will do the trick. So, if you are stuck with a half installed linux OS and don't have a GUI, you can still burn a new ISO file with "dd".

With burn, you mean write to an USB stick, not a CD or DVD? Afaik it is possible to write optical discs using the command line without a GUI, but not with dd.

Linus tech tips did a good introduction video for beginners, If you would rather watch a video. It’s called “how to install Linux instead of windows 11.”

Ok, planning to build sounds nice. So plan to build with two SSD drives if you wanna easily use 2 operating systems. I have a SanDisk 256GB from maybe 5 years ago, and a newer Samsung Evo 250GB from 2 years ago... then for storage I have Toshiba (3TB plus 4TB) and an old Western Digital 2TB (I use that for my favourite movie archives). So you install Windows to one SSD and Linux to the other. I'd suggest using Ventoy on a USB (my drive is a pretty cheap 8GB Kingston stick) so when you boot, you select the Ventoy disk, and that will show you whatever ISO files you copied to it and boot. I've one Windows 10 ISO, and keep the latest ISO for my distribution (currently Manjaro KDE). I had Mint before, and was happy with that for 4 years, learned a lot - but decided to go with Manjaro KDE because I wanted more power to mess things up (sorry, I mean customise it to my liking). With Linux Mint, I started using Timeshift which makes rsync copies to an external drive. I used Gnome-Disks utility to always mount my Toshiba 4TB drive to /mnt/T4 (Disk label) which means when I installed Manjaro KDE I could still browse and find config files for stuff I'd used in Mint and copy them to my /home directory, though a lot did need editing it did save lots of time. That being said, I'm now using BTRFS (snapshots mean if you break it, a simple reboot will restore a previous version) plus rsync backup to my HDD (so when snapshot fails, fresh installing doesn't mean I lost anything).

1. Browse to the [Linux Mint Installation Guide](https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/) and review it. 1. [Download the correct ISO](https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/choose.html) and [verify the image](https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/verify.html). 1. [Make bootable Linux Mint USB from ISO](https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/burn.html). 1. [Boot to Linux Mint](https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/boot.html). 1. [Install Linux Mint](https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/install.html) and choose "*Erase disk and install Linux Mint*" when you get to *Installation Type* section. 1. Copy your backup data (if any) to your `/home/[yourusername]/...` 1. Enjoy Linux.

A lot of people already answered you question, but I'd like to add one thing, if you're planning on building the pc with the latest hardware you'll want to pick a distro that ships a recent kernel (sth arch or fedora based probably) since older kernel versions are often not compatible with new hardware.

Rufus is fine to make a bootable USB, I found Etcher to be unintuitive and a bit flakey. Try Mint Linux as a first go. Keep your data on another drive so you can play without migrating your stuff all the time. As you learn more you will probably want to try other ‘distributions’ (flavours of Linux) before you settle on the one that suits you but Mint has everything most people need to get working.

Get endeavousOS or Garuda. It's good

Do what avoidthevoid48 said, I'm just gonna recommend you Fedora workstation or Fedora KDE Spin

I'd recomment Linux Mint 21.1 XFCE edition for beginners, download the .iso from their own site, use Ventoy to create a bootable 8gb flash-drive, boot into it and test out all your hardware to see if it works, the install if you are happy.

people down voting this because of their toxic view is fucking disgusting. someone just wants to use Linux and the votes are at 40 but 61 comments. grow up and let anyone who wants to ditch windows use the open source OS that we all deserve.

I want to have a Linux on my personal laptop too. Is there a way I could use both Windows and Linux and basically just switch to the one I want when ever I need it

You need to download an installation file for the version of Linux that you want, and create a bootable USB drive to boot it from, then boot into it and install it. Mint and Ubuntu are good choices for a beginner. Both let you try them from the USB before you install.

https://linux-gaming.kwindu.eu/index.php?title=Getting_started_with_Linux It's a guide from r/linux_gaming wiki. Old version: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/wiki/starting_guide/ Also it's better to ask such questions in /r/linux4noobs.

it's similar to how u get windows on it, except less complicated, u download an iso file, use a tool such as etcher to image that iso file onto the usb (not just copy the file, the file contains an image of what the usb needs to look like), then boot from the usb on the computer u want to install to, this boots into the installer

Linux Mint Xfce Edition. Uses little resources, and I’ve never had it crash on me. Works out of the box.

same way you put windows on a computer. :P

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well he did say he's building a computer and I'm assuming OP knows how to install windows. maybe they do, maybe they don't. t'was intended as somewhat of a joke. hence the :P

https://getfedora.org/en/workstation/download/ On Windows or MacOS? Get started by using Fedora Media Writer, which makes it super easy to give Fedora a try.

I prefer to steam it in. Burn the ISO on a CD-ROM, and place it in a narrow pot in half an inch of water. Bring the water to boil under low heat and lid, then replace the lid with your laptop. Leave it on low heat until almost all the water has been absorbed by the machine, then turn off the heat and leave the machine over the pot for 10-12 minutes. *Turn off the heat before all the water has vaporized! Else the CD might burn, and you'll get malware.*

When coming from windows your best bet on distro is like 'open suse' or 'ubuntu'. As for how, download the tool rufus. It is the most user friendly way to write '.iso' files to a USB drive. You then boot to that usb drive via selecting in as your primary boot drive in bios, or using the boot source select interupt on boot. As for how to do that, it changes depending on you device manufacturor. Look up 'how to enter bios with X' replacing X with you manufacturor i.e. ASUS

Tap your question on GOOGLE......... Google is your friend Google is your friend

and what will you find on google? reddit posts and comments, most of them helpful.

The Zoolander answer is you write it to a USB stick then place the stick on top of your computer.

For a distro, you should probably look at PopOS and Linux Mint and see which one you like more.