I need help, please, to put Linux on a Dell 1525 that has no OS

[sher]

I don't know much about computers, but I am trying my best to get this working for my granddaughter. I got this laptop for her and I was told there was a new 500 gb HDD just installed, but no OS and that I could just call Dell for new CDs of Vista, which is what came on it originally.
Not True! Dell will only talk to the person that the computer is registered to, and it didn't matter that I talked to 12 different people. The person I got it from has no idea who that is. It's 8 years old and who could know how many people have owned it. There is no way to recover, repair or restore the OS. It is not on this computer!
My brother said Linux was easy to use and that my granddaughter should have no problem using it. So I went into the BIOS on the Dell and changed the booting to cd/dvd and I downloaded Linux to a CD on my computer, that I made as a bootable like a usb and tried to get it to boot on the Dell but it said, "No bootable device" so I don't know what to do now.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Darren Hale]

Welcome. http://lifehacker.com/5774997/getting-started-with-linux-how-to-install-linux-on-your-computer

 

[MelRay]

I would also add that maybe the BIOS doesn't support boot to USB. Check that out too. If not you will have to burn the cd/dvd image to disk

 

[ryanvade]

please don't bold everything you type

 

[Jim Laughlan]

First off, how much RAM do you have? My "guess" is 1G since it previously ran Vista. Can't hurt to bump it up another 1G as RAM is so cheap it's unprecedented.

Personally, I'd install Linux Mint 17 Cinnamon as this seems like a good OS to start out with. But you definitely have to burn the ISO to a DVD so you can install it. But run a "live" version off of the DVD only so you can make sure there are no networking issues (like NIC and wireless) plus the sound and video adapters are working.

Hope this helps.

Regards
Jim