Fedora

The easiest one of the lot. Looks like Ubuntu, feels like Linux. Perfect for curious beginners.

Clueless about Linux but still want to join the cool kids club? Start here. Seriously, you won’t cry (much).

Booting into Fedora

Step 1: Download the ISO

Grab the Fedora Workstation ISO from here. Yes, you need an ISO. No, not the camera setting.

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Step 2: Burn That ISO 🔥

Time to turn your USB into a bootable Fedora launcher. You’ll need a USB stick or SD card (minimum 8GB unless you’re into living dangerously).

Use one of these tools:

• Balena Etcher — beginner-proof (a monkey could use it)
• Rufus — Windows-y but solid
• Ventoy — for the tinkerers

Using Balena Etcher (because we like pretty UIs):

1. Download and open it.
2. Plug in your USB (double-check it’s empty or useless — it will be wiped).
3. Set:
   • File: Your freshly downloaded Fedora ISO
   • Target: Your USB
4. Hit Flash! and let it do its thing.

Boom. You now have a Fedora USB that’s boot-ready.

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Step 3: Shrink That Windows Partition (Sorry, Windows)

1. Hit Win + X → Disk Management
2. Right-click your C: drive → “Shrink Volume”
3. Shrink by ~50-100GB (more if you want Fedora to stretch its legs)
4. Voilà — now you’ve got unallocated space Fedora can colonize.

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Step 4: Boot Into the Fedora USB

Time to break into your BIOS like a hacker in a bad movie.

1. Reboot your PC.

2. Smash your boot key repeatedly like it owes you money.

   • F12 – Dell, Lenovo, Acer
   • Esc – HP, ASUS
   • F11 – MSI (because why not)

3. Select the USB that says “Fedora” or something equally obvious.

You’ll be given the option to test or install Fedora. Feel free to poke around, or just send it and click Install.

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Welcome to Fedora 🎉

You made it this far. Congrats. You’ll see the Fedora welcome screen — hit Install unless you want to admire the boot screen forever.

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Installation

Language

Pick a language. No, Klingon isn’t available. Click Continue.

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Installation Destination

This part scares people. It shouldn’t. Here’s the cheat sheet:

It is scary, believe me, I don’t lie

This is where you could accidentally wipe your entire disk. Pay attention.

You’ve got four options:

1. Install alongside your other OS (the lazy-safe route, just select this we are doing custom partitioning only for the sake of it, this is best for beginners)
2. Wipe the whole disk (bold move, crazy people only)
3. Mount existing stuff (not for us, skip it)
4. Custom Partitioning (because we’re doing this like pros)

If you choose the first option, Fedora will handle everything for you. Just check the box so that it uses Unallocated Space we created earlier.

If you are going with any other option than the last one, you can skip the rest of this section and go to the next one.

Click the menu icon in the top-right to launch the storage editor.

Select the unallocated space (from the shrinking earlier), hit the +, and let’s make some partitions.

Partition 1: EFI

Because UEFI is fancy.

• Size: 512MB (not 300MB like the image, ignore it)
• Type: EFI System Partition
• Mount Point: /boot/efi

Yep, the image is lying about the size. It’s 512MB. Not negotiable.

Partition 2: Swap

When RAM gets tired, Swap steps in.

• Size: Same as your RAM (or 2× if your RAM is sad and tiny)
• Type: Swap

Image is still lying. Don’t trust its numbers either.

Partition 3: Root

Where Fedora lives.

• Size: Whatever’s left
• Type: EXT4 (or BTRFS if you like feeling special)
• Mount Point: /

Click Return to Installation, verify it all looks like this:

Then this:

Hit Next, review everything (pretend you read it), and then click Install.

Let it install. Grab a snack. Or cry. Your call.

When it’s done:

Click Exit to Live Desktop, reboot from the top-right menu, and eject the USB. Welcome to Fedora-land.

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Finalizing the Installation

Now Fedora asks you a bunch of setup questions because apparently it’s needy.

Language & Keyboard

• Pick what you want. Stick with US English unless you’re a keyboard masochist.

Privacy & Location

• Want your laptop knowing where you are? Enable it.
• Paranoid or battery-conscious? Turn it off.

Timezone

• Select Asia/Kolkata or wherever you actually live. Don’t lie.

Third-Party Repos

• This lets you install stuff Fedora pretends doesn’t exist (like proprietary drivers and media codecs). Enable it. You’ll thank yourself later.

Create a User

• Enter your name, username, password.
• Pro tip: Don’t forget the password. Tattoo it if you must.

Click through the rest, and boom — Fedora is officially yours.

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Post-Installation Stuff (The Boring but Necessary Bits)

Update Everything (Because Why Not?)

Open a terminal and do this:

sudo dnf up

Yes, you can up, update or upgrade. Fedora’s cool like that.

Install Stuff You Actually Want

• Fedora comes with almost nothing you want. Fix that.

Want VLC?

sudo dnf install vlc

Want something else?

sudo dnf search <package-name>

Go wild. Or don’t. You do you.