donwloading linuxmint online in change for windows XP?

[ina]

Hi , I'm new on this forum . I tried to see if my question was already asked before, but sofar I couldn't find an answer.

So here is my question.

I have an old computer which I didn't use for some time. Now I started to use it again, but found it has Windows XP on it. I want to put Linuxmint on it , but I don't know how.

Is it possible to download Linuxmint online, if yes where do I find the link? If Yes ,do I leave the xp on it till after I downloaded linuxmint ?
If no, how do I download it then?

I'm not very computersmart so you have to explain it to me without difficult words etc.

Hope someone has an answer for me

[xenopeek]

Suggest you start by reading the user guide: http://www.linuxmint.com/documentation.php

[ina]

That is where I got lost in the first place. I don't understand how i can find a link . I have tried to read it , but the language there is to complicated. I tried to find a lin to burn a cd , but I really have no idea what it all means.

[Mark Phelps]

Recent Mint versions won't fit on a CD; instead, you have to "burn" them to a DVD or USB stick.

What I found works in Windows (meaning, you can use XP for this), is to download the ISO file to your machine and then use the Universal USB Installer from PendriveLinux.com to make a bootable USB stick. But ... that's only useful if your PC can boot from USB stick and if it's an early XP-era PC, it's likely that it can NOT do that. To see, you can try pressing F12 when it boots and seeing if it lists an option to boot from USB.

A good place to start to obtain Linux distros is: http://distrowatch.com/

You'll see the different recent Linux distros on the left side. Click the one you want and you will go to their website. CLick the Downloads link there and it will take you to a downloads page.

But ... I should tell you that if you have a low-powered XP-era PC, you would do better considering Xubuntu or Lubuntu, as they require less system resources than recent Ubuntu or Mint versions.

[ina]

Thanks for your answer. I probably will look for the xubuntu or lubuntu then.