Where do we start with such an important piece of software?

Linux is an operating system, based on Unix.

It is perhaps the world’s finest example of free, open-source software, published under a GNU General Public Licence, and it is arguably the most important operating system every created. According to Wikipedia, “more than 90% of today’s 500 fastest supercomputers run some variant of Linux”. That’ll suit us nicely, then.

The Wikipedia entry on Linux is worth reading, and you can find it here.

If you use Linux as your operating system (OS), you do not need Windows on your computer because Linux is the OS for that computer.

Linux is free.

Ubuntu is one version of Linux, and you can find information about Ubuntu here.

Debian is another flavour, and you can find

LinuxCNC runs under Ubuntu versions 10 or 12, and under Debian version 7 (termed “Wheezy”), so you need Ubuntu or Debian on your computer, then you can add LinuxCNC.

There are more details about installation, on the page within this web site entitled Getting and installing LinuxCNC software, here.