Gallery: Walk Through Every Step of an Ubuntu Installation

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (donationware; site) is an attractive Windows alternative because of its relatively small size and modest hardware requirements — it runs nicely on a virtual machine or older hardware. The download ISO is under 1.5GB; Win10 is about 2.3GB. The recommended hardware for Ubuntu is 2GB of RAM, a 2GHz dual-core processor, and 25GB of free drive space.

Installing 16.04 takes about an hour or two. Most of that time is downloading and installing software and driver packages. Installing Ubuntu in VirtualBox is easy, once you download the operating system’s ISO — though, the first time I went through the process, the installer hung up at the location screen. The second try was faultless. You’ll be stepped through about a dozen setup screens — none of which asks whether the operating system can send your data up into the cloud. The following screen shots give a quick tour of the setup process.