I have been in the computer business for 25 years now and have been primarily a Microsoft tech.  I have worked with Unix and mainframe systems in various Fortune 500 companies on and off over that period so I am not completely in the dark as to the file and command structure.  My objective with this process is to switch from running all Microsoft applications to running all open source programs.  By documenting the process I hope that other small business owners will be able to do the same thing.  The goal is to cut or eliminate costs in your computing environment.

I downloaded to my Microsoft Windows computer openSUSE 11 and then used Nero version 8 to write the ISO image to a DVD.  An ISO is a single file that can be downloaded across the Internet and then written out to a CD or DVD to make it look like you picked up a boxed product at your computer store.  Easy to install now.  Just put the DVD in the drive and turn on the power.  I installed the openSUSE operating system on Intel Pentium 4 2.4GhZ, 1.5GB ram, hardware based RAID 1 which is mirrored 250GB hard disk drives, and an ATI Radeon 9600 series graphics card.  I accepted most of the default prompts for a core OS load.