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In the series on building your own PC I've shown you that you can both build and economically upgrade your PC, with step-by-step instructions on how to do so. But once you've upgraded your PC you're then on the merry-go-round of needing to upgrade your operating system and your various software components. You were running windows2000 and need to upgrade to XP or maybe even to Vista. But if you've upgraded your operating system you will need to upgrade much of your existing software. This will inevitably mean that you're running into a bill of several hundred dollars for the software alone. But what if there was an alternate system, a way to kit-out your new machine with a brand-new operating system for next to nothing?

The reality is that most people only use their PC for fairly basic things: for email, for surfing the web, for downloading music and photos from digital cameras. If you're one of these people then the latest version of the Windows OS isn't really necessary and there is an alternate. Indeed, unless you're very heavily into games then you don't need to be running a Microsoft-based operating system at all.

Introducton to Ubuntu

What if I told you that you could obtain a free operating system that contains all the applications you need — and all for free! Sounds incredible? Well, read on to find out more:

Whatever else you need, you will need an operating system, as without this your computer will not function. If you come from the world of Windows PCs then you may not even have thought about an alternative. After all, if you bought your PC then it probably came pre-loaded with Windows. But the truth is that the Open Source community has been working for years on creating and supplying free operating systems and software based on the Linux operating system. For many years, however, Linux has had the reputation for being difficult to install and confugure. But all this has changed. You can now get versions of Linux that you can download and burn onto a CD (or even a memory stick) and which will automatically load and configure itself to how your PC is built (indeed, in many cases this configuration is now so painless that you don't even have to bother with it).

Now, in case what I just said in the sentence above is little but gobbledygook to you — it really doesn't matter. Because I'm going to tell you about an operating system that is both poerful and very easy to install.

This operating system is called UBUNTU which is an open-source linux-based operating system based on Debian. It's a fully-featured operating system for laptops, desktops and servers (remember that unix-based operating systems run the world-wide-web). Morover, ubuntu pormise that their operating system always be free of charge, including enterprise releases and security updates. Moreover, it contains as standard many of the applications that you need and use every day on your PC. These include: Evolution (email and calendar), Firefox (web browser), Open Office (see below), F-spot (photo editing software) and Rhythmbox (media player) so you pretty-much have all the applications you need straight out of the box.

Installation is also painless in that you can download the software from this page to your PC. You can then load this to a memory stick or to a DVD (the disk image is about 700 MiB in size). If you would prefer a disk then you can request a free CD (thoug it will take up to ten weeks to arrive) or you can purchase a DVD of ubuntu from a local distributor if you want the installer quickly. These cost around £3/$6 so it's not going to be a huge dent in your wallet!

I'm recommending ubuntu here as it's the least 'techy' of all the linux distributions. So it's ideal for the home user.

Ubuntu itself is chiefly sponsored by London-based firm, Canonical, which was established by the self-made South African millonare, Mark Shuttleworth to promote and support open source software projects.

Free Office Software

For most users you will need some kind of office software. If you've been running windows before then you will probably have been using Microsoft Office, which, as you know, is not cheap. But UBUNTU comes pre-installed with an excellent alternative, Open Office which contains a word processor, a spreadsheet application and a presentation application. Morover, Open Office also has a drawin package, a database connectivity package and a suite of mathematical tools. Moreover these applications are compatible with MS Office so that you can both import and export office files. Open Office also works on Macs and Windows PCs as well as Linux so that you can use it no matter which OS you have.

Anti-virus and Anti-spyware Software

AVG offers free anti-virus software for both Linux and Windows (though linus is less plagued by viruses anyway) and they also offer free anti-spyware/anti-malware for Windows (Malware/Spyware cannot affect Linux-based OSes).

Free Firewall

If you have a permanent connection to the internet then you will need to protect your machine from hackers using a firewall. Buying this software 'off the shelf' will cost you at least $70 but ubuntu has a built-in firewall (as all unix-based machines do). If you're running Windows, however, you can get free firewall software from Comodo or ZoneAlarm.

Free Photo-editing Tool

Photo editing is becoming an increasingly pastime as people load their images from their digital cameras to their PCs. Ubuntu comes pre-loaded with the editing suite F-Spot which allows you to easily import and edit your image files. If you want a more fully-featured Photoshop-like application then you can download and install the far more fully-featured GIMP application.

UBUNTU and Dell

As a seal of approval to the ubuntu operating system computer manufacturer Dell have just anounced (May 1st 2007) that they have chosen UBUNTU as the operating system for their range of consumer Linux computers.

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