The next episode of Solitary World is going to feature a segment of Living Free which is targeted at the complete Linux Newbie who has never installed Linux on a computer before in their life. The segment is going to talk about using a BitTorrent client to download a DVD or set of CD images to do the software installation with.

What follows is a rough resemblance of the script for this segment. If you're interested in installing Linux on your computer but have no idea where to start, this information will be of value to you.

The problem

To get started, you need installation media -- a data DVD or a set of data CDs that you can install the Linux software from. You could buy this media at a store or an online outlet, but most people just take advantage of their broadband Internet connection and download an image--or an .ISO file--of the media to their computer and burn it to blank CDs or a blank DVD.

Traditionally, when you download data over the Internet, you go to a web site or an FTP site, select the file you want to download, and the data begins transferring from the remote server to your computer. Many factors can affect the speed of the download. The biggest factor would be the speed of your Internet connection. The speed of the Internet connection for the server you're downloading from is also a factor. And then there are an endless number of things between you and the server you're downloading from that may slow things down.

BitTorrent

A popular method for downloading large files like Linux install media, video files, and music files, is a system called BitTorrent. You may have heard of BitTorrent before in relation to illegal downloads of copyrighted software, music, or video and it can be used for that, but it was originally intended for distributing software like Linux distributions. It's perfectly legal to use BitTorrent to download a Linux distribution.

All you need to use BitTorrent is a BitTorrent client program on your computer.

Instead of your computer contacting a remote server and requesting a file, a BitTorrent client connects to a BitTorrent tracker which provides a small amount of information about other computers, like yours, that have at least a portion of the file you want. These other computers (and yours) are called "peers." The BitTorrent client then communicates with these computers (which are also running BitTorrent client software) and negotiates with them to get part of the data you want. With popular files, your BitTorrent client could end up communicating with dozens or even hundreds of other peers. These other clients will start sending data down to your computer and your client will start reassembling the portions of the data back together into the original file.

Once your computer has a minimum portion of the data, your BitTorrent client may begin uploading that data to other clients. So, right away, you'll be a member of the open source community by participating in the global distribution of open source software.

Your BitTorrent client will continue uploading to other clients even after your download is complete. BitTorrent users are encouraged to obey an honor code by aiming to upload at least as much data to other clients as they have downloaded. This "give as much as you take" ethos keeps the BitTorrent network working well for everyone.

The BitTorrent client

Naturally, you now need a BitTorrent client. This document assumes you are using Windows, but BitTorrent clients are available for just about every operating system and platform commonly in use.

There are many different BitTorrent clients for Windows. One of the most popular clients is called Azureus. These instructions are for a simpler program created by the site responsible for the BitTorrent protocol.

To download the BitTorrent client go to <http://www.bittorrent.com/download> and select the Get BitTorrent button/link. You can run this program (as it has a .exe filename extension) once the software has been downloaded to your computer. This will install the BitTorrent software on your computer.

After the BitTorrent client is installed, you will be ready to download your Linux installation media. You'll need a torrent file to begin. This file tells the BitTorrent client where to find the tracker.

These instructions explain how to download the Fedora 7 installation media, but the process is very similar for any other Linux distribution's media.

Getting the torrent file and starting the download

You can download the Fedora torrent file from http://torrent.fedoraproject.org/. Several torrent files are available for download, so you'll need to choose the one most appropriate for your system and the blank media you're going to burn with.

As of Fedora 7, the Fedora project no longer offers torrents for CD installation media, just DVD media. There is a way to created CD installation media from the DVD media image, but if you don't have a DVD burner, the easiest thing to do is to download the Live CD torrent which will let you install a minimal version of Fedora.

If your computer has a 64-bit processor, you may download the x86_64 version of the Fedora 7 torrent. Otherwise, or if you're not sure, download the i386 version of the Fedora 7 torrent.

When you select the torrent file in your web browser, the BitTorrent client should be the program that is set up to handle the file. Otherwise, download the torrent file and open it from your system with the BitTorrent client.

As soon as the BitTorrent client opens the torrent file, it will prompt you to specify where you want the downloaded file -- the installation media image -- stored on your system. The BitTorrent client will begin downloading the data as soon as you answer that question.

Now, you wait. Downloading the entire DVD image may take 20 minutes or it could take several hours, depending on the amount of bandwidth available.

Once you have the DVD image file on your computer, use a DVD burning application like Nero to burn a DVD from the image file. If you don't have DVD burning application, download a freeware application like ImgBurn to burn the image file to blank DVD media.

In conclusion

You should now have bootable DVD you can boot your computer with which will automatically run Anaconda, the Red Hat installation program.

I'll go into the process of installing Fedora in the future. In the meantime, here are some good resources:

• <http://stanton-finley.net/fedora_core_5_installation_notes.html> A newbie friendly tutorial for installing Fedora Core 5. A lot is still relevant.
• <http://docs.fedoraproject.org/install-guide/f7/> The official Fedora 7 installation guide.
• <http://news.softpedia.com/news/Fedora-7-Installation-Guide-56999.shtml> Softpedia's Fedora 7 installation guide... for dummies.