How Do You Download From OSDisc CD?

Long Tom

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I recently bought Linux Mint 18.1 Cinnamon on a CD from OSDisc.com. I thought I'd try it on my laptop computer, to see how it worked, and if I still would retain my Web browsers, bookmarks, and other programs from Windows 10. However, when I placed the CD in the disc drive and clicked on the disc drive, nothing happened. It just sat there, and didn't open up or offer download procedures. Is there something else I need to do? I am an absolute beginner with Linux, and far from the world's most computer-literate person.
 


Hi Tom, and welcome to the forums!

Being very new to Linux, you want to be VERY CAREFUL so that you don't mess up your Windows 10 installation (as I assume you want to keep it).

Linux is not an app or program... it is a fully developed operating system, similar to Windows itself. With care, you can install Linux Mint on your computer side-by-side with Windows, but this process is also how things can go wrong, and I'd suggest you wait at least a bit so you can learn more first. There are many here that will help you along.

The DVD you bought will actually boot your computer in what's called "live mode." If you can successfully boot on it, you can try out Linux Mint without making any changes that will cause problems to Windows. Running from DVD is a little slower than if you install it to your hard drive, but its worth the sacrifice in speed to get you used to how things work.

But Windows 10 has some things that can make it hard to even boot up on your DVD, so that's the first thing for you to try. With Windows running, load the DVD, and then tell Windows to RESTART. Note... do not choose "SHUT DOWN".... choose RESTART. Then before Windows starts, look around on the black screen for any special instructions, usually in the corners, that may tell you to hit some special F-key, like F10 or F11, to get a "Boot menu." If you get that far, hit the proper F-key and choose your DVD drive to boot up. If you don't see the F-key text in the corners, and/or if the DVD does not boot up, there are more hoops to jump through just to make it work.

I don't want to scare you off, but operating systems are complicated, and Windows 10 has made the situation even more complicated. There are some other methods you can try Linux too. For example, you can install a free program called VirtualBox in your Windows, and then you can install your Linux Mint into VirtualBox... this does make it seem like Linux is an app inside of Windows. Another suggestions is to pick up an older used computer that you can really experiment with and not have any fear about messing up your primary home computer.

To really get you going though, this will become a long process for you to learn new terms and jargon that you are probably not familiar with. But as I said above, we're here to help you along if we can. We are all very enthusiastic about Linux and feel it is much better and safer to use than Windows.

Cheers
 
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