32-bit vs 64-bit

So will I be taking a bad chance if I went online with this unprotected computer to download the Linux distro?
You should be okay. We can give you and exact link here that you can click on, and it will prompt you to start the download process. The discussion earlier about "verifying" the download helps to make sure that you get the complete file, and that it is not corrupted. It's a good practice. Be patient though, the download does take a good bit unless you have a very fast cable connection.
 


Also, it seems to me the only way to download it is on to a PC. I couldn’t do that with a tablet, could I ?
Correct. You need a PC. You will also need to install a special program so that you can "burn" the Linux file to your USB. We'll cover that when you're ready.
 
Did you try the "Show USB Boot" choice, about half way down the list?
Yes and that didn’t help me at all. I somehow accidentally found the message booting Colonel failed invalid argument but I’m not getting very far
 
You should be okay. We can give you and exact link here that you can click on, and it will prompt you to start the download process. The discussion earlier about "verifying" the download helps to make sure that you get the complete file, and that it is not corrupted. It's a good practice. Be patient though, the download does take a good bit unless you have a very fast cable connection.
 
OK, Atanere , I’m ready for that link. I’m going to reformat the EBS drive since there’s nothing usable for me on there and then I’ll download Linux onto it
 
Okay, click here and you should get some option to "Save File"... probably to your Downloads folder. You want to be absolutely sure you let it finish the download. This is Linux Mint 19.2, MATE Edition. After it downloads, read all below....

If you connection is good, we might skip the verifying step. Up to you, but it will require downloading another program to do the verify.

You do need to download a program to "burn" the Linux file to the USB. This is a special process so the USB will boot your computer. A very simple program to use is Balena Etcher. Go to their website (here) to download their file, then install it on your computer. When installed, insert your USB drive into the computer and run Etcher. Etcher is pretty simple and self-explanatory. Etcher will do it's own "verify" but it is just confirming the burn went okay, not that your download was complete.

When Etcher is finished, try booting on the USB, just like you did with the other stuff on it. Etcher should have erased all of the other stuff.
 
Atanere, it turns out I wasn’t able to do it earlier and I don’t have WiFi hardware on the computer so I have to use our community computer. Can you give me a ballpark idea of how long the download will take?
 
Might be difficult to say.
Speed of connection...
Speed of computer...
Amount of memory...

A bit like saying "How long is a piece of string"! :)
 
Might be difficult to say.
Speed of connection...
Speed of computer...
Amount of memory...

A bit like saying "How long is a piece of string"! :)
Gotcha. What about downloading it onto my netbook? Will that work, or MUST I use a PC?
 
If I click on the link it says 24 minutes (for me).

It should be OK on your netbook.
 
Atanere, it turns out I wasn’t able to do it earlier and I don’t have WiFi hardware on the computer so I have to use our community computer. Can you give me a ballpark idea of how long the download will take?
Also
If I click on the link it says 24 minutes (for me).

It should be OK on your netbook.
Great! Thanks!
 
What about downloading it onto my netbook? Will that work, or MUST I use a PC?
Netbook, notebook, laptop, desktop... these are all PC's (personal computers). But your tablet is different. You can download to the tablet, but it can be tricky to transfer the file to a PC, and possibly not worth the trouble. You will need to get the downloaded file to a PC, and install the Etcher program to "burn the file" to your USB.


I’m going to reformat the EBS drive since there’s nothing usable for me on there and then I’ll download Linux onto it
Just to be sure you understand... the downloaded file needs to be downloaded to (or copied to) a computer that also has Etcher installed. Your USB can be blank, if you formatted it, or Etcher will erase it for you... but the downloaded file can't be stored on the USB itself when you get ready to "burn" the USB.

The file I linked to is stored on kernel.org --- usually a very fast site to download from. If you aren't in the U.S. let me know your country and I can try to provide a link to a closer location. That can help the speed.
 
I’m in the US, so that should be no problem. I must say this is all very overwhelming and I am so grateful to all you people for helping me so much. I glanced at the titles of some of the other threads on this forum and I can’t believe that I’m even doing this. I have no idea what you guys are talking about in your other threads. I guess I have a lot to learn. Anyway I’m going to download that file now.
 
Yes, it's tough at first. But hang in there.... you can do this. :D
 
OK, so the netbook had problems and I’m now using my old laptop. It seems to be working well it has about 10 minutes to go. I will then download the file and attempt to burn the file to the USB stick.
 
I feel like I’m performing an appendectomy by radio. LOL.
 
i'm tryng to download etcher, but nothing happens when I press the download button. I'm dangerously low on RAM, only 3.25 GB of 74.5where how big GB free. Is that the problem? I can't see anywhere how big the etcher file is.
 
I ran a windows diagnostic repair, it says a cable is not plugged into the local area connection, but there never was a cable for that. What am i doing wrong?
 
i'm tryng to download etcher, but nothing happens when I press the download button. I'm dangerously low on RAM, only 3.25 GB of 74.5where how big GB free. Is that the problem? I can't see anywhere how big the etcher file is.
I guess you mean you are low on hard drive space.... 3GB of RAM is plenty to do almost anything. :D

Etcher is pretty small, about 80MB for Linux. For reference, it takes 1000 MB = 1 GB. The Linux .iso file should have been about 2 GB. If you right-click on the Linux file and click Properties, you should see the size. Let us know what it says.... Windows reports size differently from Linux.
 

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