My overall process of installing GNU/Linux from being a first-time learner and going up until now, keeping up with continuing software updates.
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Download the live CD installer image.
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If this is your first time installing GNU/Linux on a computer, write the image out to a DVD disc. If this is the second time and you’re downloading a newer version but still unfamiliar with GNU/Linux, write it out to a flash drive, SD card, or similar. Migrate the contents of your flash drive to alternate storage if necessary.
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If you’ve been through the run before and are very well experienced, convert live CD image into a live network boot image.
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Walk-through the live CD installer to install GNU/Linux on your target computer. Often times it helps to have more than one computer when working with GNU/Linux, or any new operating system for the first time. Nowadays virtualization is a good substitute for having multiple computers if you do in fact have a single computer with enough memory to do the run-through.
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Configure the package manager on your new computer to not delete cached packages. This way you can save the local packages for quickly setting up a second and third computer.
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To make the various steps in the overall process easier, before doing the overall process a second time, setup a second computer that can be used as a server for hosting pre-downloaded assets.
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Make sure you download plenty of source code packages and build dependencies to make local development easy and fast, so should the need arise, you can even develop with ease to target outdated distro versions.