Upgrade To Ubantu From Windows XP

How to upgrade from Windows XP to Ubuntu | Analysis | Features | PC Pro
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How to upgrade from Windows

XP to Ubuntu
Posted on 21 Apr 2014 at 09:00
If you need to migrate away from Windows XP, the free, modern Ubuntu
OS is an ideal choice. Darien Graham-Smith makes the switch
Upgrading to a new operating system is an upheaval, and if its a new version of Windows youre
moving to, its an expense as well. So its understandable that some individuals and businesses havent
yet migrated their old computers away from Windows XP, even though security patches and support
have finally been cut off for good.
Theres no need to stick with a dangerously vulnerable operating system. Upgrading may be much
easier than you think and if you switch to a Linux distribution, rather than hopping up to Windows 8, it
wont cost you a penny, since the OS and major applications are free.
On these pages, well illustrate how easy it is to move an old XP PC over to the latest version of the
user-friendly Ubuntu Linux OS and suggest which programs to use in Linux for your everyday tasks.
Planning for your upgrade

(/gallery/features/388261/howto-upgrade-from-windows-xpto-ubuntu/208123)
Before you start making plans

to move to Ubuntu, the first
thing to do is check that the
newer OS will actually meet
your needs. Below, youll find
our guide to Ubuntus various
applications: most everyday
computing tasks are well
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/388261/how-to-upgrade-from-windows-xp-to-ubuntu/pr... 09-05-2014
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covered, but if you need to

work with a particular file, you
may find that Windows is
your only option.
Assuming Ubuntu is suitable
for you, the simplest way to approach the upgrade is to set up a dual-boot system, leaving XP intact.
We dont recommend that you make a habit of booting up your old Windows XP installation, since this
will expose you to security risks. But youll be able to directly access all your Windows folders within
Ubuntu, so doing it this way means you wont have to worry about losing any personal data in the
move. Youll also have an emergency fallback if a task comes up that cant be done in Ubuntu (or on
another PC).
Since XP and Ubuntu will both have to squeeze onto your hard disk, we recommend having a bit of a
clear-out to make space for the new OS. Use the Windows Disk Cleanup tool to remove unneeded
temporary files and uninstall any unwanted large applications. This is also a good time to get rid of any
large personal files you dont need: use a tool such as WinDirStat (https://windirstat.info) to identify
whats eating up the most space on your disk. Dont forget to empty the Recycle Bin when youre
finished.
If you cant free up more than 10GB, consider wiping your Windows installation to give Ubuntu space.
This is easy to do during the installation process, but if you plan to take this route, back up your files to
an external disk first and be very careful not to miss any.
Choosing and downloading a version of Ubuntu

Ubuntu comes in a variety of versions, but the latest desktop release can always be downloaded from
the main Ubuntu site (http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop) . The newest version 14.04 LTS,
nicknamed the Trusty Tahr is a long-term support release thats guaranteed to remain stable, with
continued security and support updates, until April 2019.
The default downloads are 64-bit, but unless you have more than 4GB of RAM, we recommend you
select the 32-bit version. This limits you to around 3GB of usable memory, but it supports a wider range
of software and drivers, so you can expect a smoother ride. If your PCs really old, the CPU may not
support 64-bit computing anyway.
Click through and youll be invited to donate to Ubuntu before downloading the OS: if youd prefer to try
it out without paying, click Not now, take me to the download. A large ISO file will now start to
download; its around 1GB in size, so depending on the speed of your internet connection, it could take
minutes or even hours to arrive.
Once the ISO has downloaded, the simplest thing to do is burn it to a DVD (its too big to fit on a regular
CD). If you dont have a DVD drive (or a spare disc), use a tool such as the free LinuxLive USB
Creator (http://www.linuxliveusb.com) to burn it to a USB flash drive. Once this is done, all you need to
do is shut down Windows and boot your PC from your freshly created DVD or USB drive. This may
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entail pressing a key while the computer starts up in order to access the boot menu or even going into
the BIOS and changing the order of boot devices to give the USB or optical drive a higher priority than
your main hard disk.
Test drive or full installation?

If you arent certain whether Ubuntu is right for you, you can easily try it out without making any
changes to your system: simply boot up the installation DVD and select the Try Ubuntu option (rather
than Install Ubuntu). This will boot up a live Ubuntu environment, running entirely from the optical
disc (and from memory), so you can get a feel for the OS and applications before making a
commitment.
Because of its reliance on the

optical drive, the Try Ubuntu
environment is much less
responsive than a real
installation, so dont be
disheartened if its annoyingly
slow. For obvious reasons its
also not possible to install
additional applications,
although you can access and
update files on your Windows
hard disk. If youre sold on
Ubuntu right away, you can
install the OS from within the
live environment, simply click on the Install Ubuntu icon at the top of the Launcher.
Needless to say, if you boot from the installation media and select Install Ubuntu, the operating
system will be installed on your hard disk. Youll be asked whether you want to download updates
while installing this will take longer, but it means that when youre finished any recently updated OS
components and drivers will be ready and working.
Its also a good idea to tick Install this third party software, which refers to the Fluendo MP3 plugin.
Without it, you wont be able to listen to MP3s, which probably isnt what you want. Its only excluded by
default since the encoder isnt fully free and open-source.
Youll next be asked how you want to set up Ubuntu. As discussed above, we suggest you choose
Install Ubuntu alongside Windows; if you choose Replace Windows with Ubuntu, be certain youve
backed up all your data before proceeding. To set up the dual-boot system, the Ubuntu installer divides
your hard disk into two partitions: drag the divider to choose how much space you want to keep for
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Windows and how much to allocate to Ubuntu. You may as well shrink XP down almost as far as it will
go: just leave a gigabyte or two of headroom in case you ever need to boot back into Windows for
some reason, as it wont work properly if theres no spare disk space.
The resize operation may take minutes or hours, depending on how full and fragmented your hard disk
is. Youll then be prompted for administrative details, including which time zone youre in, which sort of
keyboard youre using, what username you want and so on. If its a home PC that you dont share with
others, its probably safe to activate Log in automatically, so you dont need to enter a password every
time your Ubuntu system starts up, and theres no need to Encrypt my home folder.
The installer will now grind away for a while, after which youll be prompted to restart the computer,
remove the installation disc and wait for your new Ubuntu PC to boot up.
Finding your way

Ubuntu is a simple and intuitive operating system, but it differs in a few key ways from the Windows XP
style of doing things. The first thing youll notice is that theres no Start menu, but you can launch
applications by clicking the icons on the Launcher at the left of the screen. You can also search for
software and files by name by opening the Dash; to do so, click the swirly Ubuntu logo at the top of
the Launcher, or tap the Windows key and start typing. The spiky icon at the top right of the menu bar is
where youll find system settings and shutdown options.
Your personal folders in

Ubuntu all live in a location
called Home you can
browse it by opening the Files
view (the second Launcher
icon from the top). Here,
youll find folders for Music,
Documents and so on, as
well as a Desktop folder for
easy access to files on your
desktop. Theres also a Public folder, where you can keep things you want to share with others: if you
create multiple user accounts (say, for other family members), each will have their own Home directory,
but only the contents of the Public folder will be accessible to other users.
Ubuntu comes with a decent range of preinstalled software more so than Windows and adding
more is easy. The Ubuntu Software Centre is effectively an app store for your desktop, letting you find
and install new programs in a few clicks (its icon looks like a shopping bag with an A on the front).
And because this is Linux, a huge proportion of the content on offer is free. Below youll find our guide
to some of the major Linux applications for the jobs youre used to doing on Windows.
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With this information under your belt, you should be ready to start exploring and if you have more
questions, drop by the official help site (https://help.ubuntu.com) for a more detailed guide. Ubuntu is a
powerful modern operating system, so you may find you quickly come to prefer it to XP.
Web browsing
Theres no Internet Explorer on Linux some would say thats a good thing but Firefox comes
preinstalled in Ubuntu. It works just like the Windows version and can use all the same add-ons, so
youll feel right at home.
Users of other browsers arent left out, either. Opera isnt hosted in the Ubuntu Software Centre, but
you can install it from the Opera website (http://www.opera.com/download) : your operating system
should be automatically detected, so all you have to do is click the big Download button to get the
installer. If youre using Ubuntus standard installation of Firefox, the default option will be to open the
downloaded file with /usr/bin/software-center; accept this and click Install inside the Software Centre
app to set it up.
If you prefer Chrome, you can install its open-source brother Chromium directly from the Software
Centre. This browser looks and works just like regular Chrome, and if you sign in, it will even sync your
bookmarks, history and settings from Chrome. However, paid-for features such as Flash and H.264
video support arent included in Chromium, so you may prefer to use the full Chrome browser. To
install it, visit Googles Chrome site (http://www.google.com/chrome) , click to download and select 32bit .deb (For Debian/Ubuntu) from the options offered.
Email
Ubuntu comes with Mozilla

Thunderbird, so if youve
used this on Windows, youll
be right at home. It will work
with any webmail and ISP
email service that uses the
standard POP or IMAP
protocols. If you want a client
with an integrated calendar
such as Microsoft Outlook,
you can download the more advanced Evolution mail and calendar application from the Software
Centre.
Outlook itself doesnt run on Linux; if you want to connect to a Microsoft Exchange server you can ask
your provider to enable webmail access.
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Chat and VoIP

Skype is owned by Microsoft, so you might expect it to be Windows-only. In fact, theres a perfectly
good native Ubuntu client that you can download from the main Skype website.
If you want to keep up with contacts on other chat services, the preinstalled Empathy instantmessaging tool should do the job. It supports a variety of systems including AIM, Google Talk,
Facebook and Yahoo and it integrates with Ubuntu via the envelope icon on the taskbar. You can
stay signed on to several services at once, and receive chat notifications all in one place.
Cloud storage (http://www.cloudpro.co.uk/iaas/cloud-storage)

Dropbox offers a native client for Ubuntu, which you can set up directly from the Software Centre. If
you prefer to use Microsofts OneDrive (formerly called SkyDrive), youll need a workaround: the free
Storage Made Easy service (https://storagemadeeasy.com) provides a native Ubuntu client and
handles SkyDrive syncing itself. Apple iCloud (http://www.cloudpro.co.uk/saas/productivity/appleicloud) , Box, Google Drive and other services are supported too. Until recently, Ubuntu also offered its
own Ubuntu One service, but Ubuntus publisher Canonical has now discontinued the service,
acknowledging that going up against the likes of Dropbox isnt a competitive strategy.
Office applications
Ubuntu comes with the well-featured LibreOffice suite preinstalled, which can open and edit Word,
Excel and PowerPoint files. You can also create new documents, spreadsheets and presentations, and
save them in Office-compatible file formats. Some people actually prefer LibreOffice to Microsoft Office,
thanks to its more traditional that is, not ribbon-based interface.
Office documents may not always look exactly right in LibreOffice, however. Theyll be readable, but not
every advanced feature is fully supported: the Writer word processor is less flexible than Word when it
comes to tables, page borders and watermarks, for example. Other features simply arent available:
Calc (the equivalent to Excel) lacks Flash fill, sparklines and other handy data-analysis features. The
LibreOffice website hosts a useful online feature comparison (http://) of the two suites.
A final point to note is that theres no LibreOffice equivalent to Microsoft Publisher. The Ubuntu
Software Centre offers the free Scribus DTP package as an alternative, but its ability to work with other
file formats is still a work in progress; if you have an archive of PUB files, theres no guarantee youll be
able to open and edit them within Ubuntu.
Web editing
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Predictably, big-name
packages such as Adobes
Dreamweaver and Muse
arent offered on Linux, so
you cant easily bring big
projects across. For simple
tasks, the Software Centre
offers a popular HTML editor
called Bluefish. For a more
visual approach, you can edit
HTML directly in LibreOffice Writer. Other options include SeaMonkey Composer
(http://www.seamonkey-project.org) and KompoZer (http://www.kompozer.net) ; both of these need to be
manually compiled and installed, however, so beginners may prefer to steer clear.
Music
Ubuntus built-in Rhythmbox

music player is a simple way
to manage your music library
and podcasts. It supports
MP3, OGG, FLAC and M4A
audio files, plays and rips
CDs, and integrates with
dozens of internet radio
services including Last.fm
and Libre.fm to help you
discover new music. Sadly, theres no simple way to move playlists and ratings across from iTunes or
Windows Media Player: search online and youll find various scripts that promise to help, but if they go
wrong youre on your own.
Since Apple doesnt make an Ubuntu version of iTunes, theres also no way to sync an iPod or iPhone
from the desktop, or to buy new content from the iTunes Store although you can manage and buy
content directly on your iOS device. If youre using a non-iOS player such as an Android phone, you
can buy music from many alternative services, such as the Amazon MP3 Store. Another option for
library management and streaming is Google Play Music Manager, which offers a native Ubuntu
client (https://play.google.com/music) .
Video
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Ubuntus Videos application is based on the free Totem player; most popular video formats are
supported natively, and its set up as the default handler for them, so you can simply double-click on a
video file to play.
If you need something more versatile, head to the Software Centre and download VLC Media Player,
which supports more or less every type of media file you can imagine. It can also play DVDs, but you
may need to install the restricted (that is, closed-source) Ubuntu extras
(http://www.pcpro.co.uk/links/235id2) to make this work.
Photo editing
If your interest in photography

extends chiefly to organising
and tidying up your
snapshots before uploading
them to Facebook, Ubuntu
has you covered. The
preinstalled Shotwell photo
manager can import and sort
images from any camera or
phone, using tags and ratings
to divide up your library. You can apply common adjustments such as tweaking the exposure and
colour tint, crop out unwanted details and fix red-eye.
More advanced edits can be carried out in GIMP (the GNU Image Manipulation Program), which youll
find in the Ubuntu Software Centre. Its capable of matching sophisticated Photoshop effects such as
Content-Aware Fill and Move, and its even possible to process raw images from a DSLR the UFRaw
module works as both a standalone application and a GIMP plugin for importing raw files. For keen
snappers, however, switching to Linux may feel like a step backwards: the GIMP is easier to use than it
once was, thanks to a recent interface overhaul, but in our view it still isnt as accessible as, say,
Photoshop Elements. UFRaw, meanwhile, does a great job of processing raw images, but lacks the
detailed touch-up tools of Adobes Lightroom and Camera Raw software.
Video editing
OpenShot is a free nonlinear video editor that youll
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find in the Software Centre. It

isnt as advanced as
commercial Windows
packages, however think
Windows Movie Maker rather
than Sony Vegas. And note
that OpenShot cant import
video projects from other
applications only its own OSP file format is supported. If you need more power, try the free edition of
Lightworks (http://www.lwks.com) . This is a much more advanced video editor, but a licence to unlock
its full feature set costs 5 per month, or 180 outright.
Music creation
The most developed audio

workstation for Ubuntu is
Ardour, which offers nondestructive editing across an
unlimited number of audio
and MIDI tracks. It isnt free,
but it can cost as little as $1
for a one-off purchase with no
ongoing updates: for more
details, check out the
licensing terms
(http://ardour.org) . Another
option is Tracktion (http://www.tracktion.com) , currently available as a free (64-bitonly) beta. However, one important caveat for music-makers is that Linux supports a much more limited
selection of plugins and virtual instruments than Windows.
Games
Its unlikely that your old Windows games will be available for Ubuntu, but theres a decent range of
open-source diversions in the Software Centre. More serious gamers can also download the Steam
platform, which serves as a gateway to a host of modern commercial games. These may not run
smoothly on older hardware, and right now the selection is much smaller than it is on Windows and OS
X. However, the Linux-based SteamOS gaming system is due for release this year, so we can expect
to see more high-profile Ubuntu-compatible games in the future.
Author: Darien Graham-Smith
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Upgrade To Ubantu From Windows XP

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How to upgrade from Windows XP to Ubuntu | Analysis | Features | PC Pro

How to upgrade from Windows

Planning for your upgrade

Before you start making plans

How to upgrade from Windows XP to Ubuntu | Analysis | Features | PC Pro

covered, but if you need to

Choosing and downloading a version of Ubuntu

How to upgrade from Windows XP to Ubuntu | Analysis | Features | PC Pro

Test drive or full installation?

Because of its reliance on the

How to upgrade from Windows XP to Ubuntu | Analysis | Features | PC Pro

Finding your way

Your personal folders in

How to upgrade from Windows XP to Ubuntu | Analysis | Features | PC Pro

Ubuntu comes with Mozilla

How to upgrade from Windows XP to Ubuntu | Analysis | Features | PC Pro

Chat and VoIP

Cloud storage (http://www.cloudpro.co.uk/iaas/cloud-storage)

How to upgrade from Windows XP to Ubuntu | Analysis | Features | PC Pro

Ubuntus built-in Rhythmbox

How to upgrade from Windows XP to Ubuntu | Analysis | Features | PC Pro

If your interest in photography

OpenShot is a free nonlinear video editor that youll

How to upgrade from Windows XP to Ubuntu | Analysis | Features | PC Pro

find in the Software Centre. It

The most developed audio

How to upgrade from Windows XP to Ubuntu | Analysis | Features | PC Pro

For more details aboutPrinted

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