"Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking - Albert Einstein"

I am writing this guide to help those who are interested in trying Linux as a first time user. Assumption is made such that you're new to Linux and you have landed on my guide to get started with Linux as a fresher.

What you will learn:

• How to boot Linux Live CD Distribution
• Getting used to VMware Player

What you should know/have:

• Laptop with least 8GB RAM with active internet connection
• Some patience
• Some common sense
• Amateur Google-ing skills
• Ability to think

Assume yourself as a fresher to Linux, which means you have no idea what is Linux is all about. Anyway Linux is not an Operating System. It is a kernel. What makes Linux an operating system? All the packages bundled with Linux makes it an usable operating system (Linux Distribution). Okay fine, what's next? There are a lot of Linux distributions out there . You can refer to DistroWatch website. I will not dwell deep into Linux as it is a fresher guide, so let's stick to this. We will be using a live distribution to get used to Linux for first time. We will NOT be installing it on a physical machine until you have enough idea of how to operate Linux. Why? Simple, imagine you want to try Linux on your own and you have decided to install on a machine which has operating system, and chances are you may lose your existing operating system (It happens to a lot of people) . So to save all the trouble of losing your operating system , clueless of what to do and how to solve the problem, we will be using a player (not media player) but a visualization player to try Linux for First Time. What is virtual player? Virtual Player a software package to emulate actual hardware in software terms. So by now you would have a rough idea of what is Linux and what is a virtual player (VMware Player) . If you feel you want to read more about what I have mentioned .....

Before we start, make sure you have a personal computer or laptop with least 8GB RAM. Next, you need to download 2 files from 2 websites. First will be VMware Player and Fedora Live Workstation (Fedora Live Workstation x86_64) . Once you have finished downloading both files, install VMware Player first. Once you're done , reboot your machine.

Once you have rebooted your machine, go ahead and start VMware Player. You should see something like this:

Now, click "Create a New Virtual Machine" . You should see something like this:

Here, you have two options, either to enter physical CD into your personal computer / laptop or you can use the .iso file. Since we have downloaded an iso file, go ahead and click "Installer Disk Image" and click "Browse..."  to navigate to the folder where your iso file is. Click on the file and you should be able to see this:

For some reason , VMware Player does not detect Operating System we have just selected. Not a big problem, just proceed with "Next" and you should see this:

Like I mentioned earlier, VMware Player doesn't detect operating system, so select the operating system. In this case, we have selected "Linux". Next, have a look at version drop down menu and select Fedora 64-bit. This is because the Linux distribution you have downloaded just now is provided by Fedora. Once you have done this, proceed with "Next" . You should see this:

Now, you can choose to name your virtual machine and it's location. Once it's done, proceed with "Next". You should see this:

Here, you will have option to increase your disk size for your virtual machine. Now, go ahead and change the value from 20.0 to let's say 80.0 . Leave the other option untouched and proceed with "Next". You should see this:

Here you will have option to customize your virtual machine hardware . Here we will make some changes, just in case if you find your Memory is below 1GB as well as some networking tweak, in order to get some internet connection for the virtual machine. Now, click on "Customize Hardware". You should see this:

Here you can customize your virtual machine by adjusting memory , processors and etc etc. Just make sure you have enough memory , least 1GB RAM. Next, click on "Network Adapter" and you should see this:

Here we will tweak the Network connection option to ensure that the virtual machine gets logical address (valid IP address) in order to receive internet connection. Go ahead and check the "Bridged": Connected directly to the physical network" and check the box that says "Replicate physical network connection state" . Once you're done, click "Close" . You will return to the hardware page , and click "Finish". Voila! You have just created your virtual machine.

Let's recap. We downloaded 2 files from internet. One is the VMware Player and the other will be the iso file (Linux Live CD Distribution), Then we installed the VMware Player and rebooted the machine and went on configuring the VMware Player. Next we will start the virtual machine to boot the iso file.

You should see something like this:

Now, go ahead and click "Play Virtual Machine". What happens is that your virtual machine will boot up with the iso file inserted. You should see something like this :

Just leave the timer to run and the Live environment will boot. Once it has boot up, you should see this:

Here you have two options, either to "Try Fedora" or "Install to Hard Drive". Remember earlier we set some disk size? You can install Fedora in the disk you have created earlier. Now bring your mouse to the VMware Player screen and click, you should see the mouse pointer dropping into virtual environment , don't worry just press "CTRL+ALT" together and your mouse will reappear in host environment. Once you have clicked "Try Fedora", you should see something like this:

Well, it's just a menu saying you can choose to install to hard drive anytime. Just click "Close". Once you have done that, you can click "Activities" to explore applications in the Live media. Since we have internet configured earlier, go ahead and try to browse Internet. You should be able to browse internet.

From here you can go ahead explore linux live media distribution you have loaded.

Thank You.