# Asterisk Project : Installing Asterisk

Added by malcolmd , edited by mdavenport on Sep 27, 2012

Now that you know a bit about Asterisk and how it is used, it's time to get you up and running with your own Asterisk installation. There are various ways to get started with Asterisk on your own system:

- Install an Asterisk-based Linux distribution such as AsteriskNOW. This takes care of installing Linux, Asterisk, and some web-based interfaces all at the same time, and is the easiest way to get started if you're new to Linux and/or Asterisk.
- If you're already familiar with Linux or Unix, you can simply install packages for Asterisk and its related tools using the package manager in your operating system. We'll cover this in more detail below in Alternate Install Methods.
- For the utmost in control of your installation, you can compile and install Asterisk (and its related tools) from source code. We'll explain how to do this in Installing Asterisk From Source.