1. Log in to the AWS Management Console: If you don’t have an AWS account, you will need to create one. Once you have an account, go to the AWS Management Console and log in.

2. Navigate to the EC2 dashboard: Once you are logged in to the console, navigate to the EC2 dashboard. This can be done by clicking on the “Services” menu at the top of the page, selecting “EC2” under the “Compute” section, or by searching for “EC2” in the search bar at the top of the page.

3. Click on the “Launch Instance” button: On the EC2 dashboard, click on the “Launch Instance” button to start the process of launching a new instance.

4. Choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) that is based on Linux: In the “Step 1: Choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI)” section, select an AMI that is based on Linux. You can choose from a variety of Linux distributions, including Amazon Linux 2, Ubuntu, and CentOS. Each AMI has different features and capabilities, so choose the one that best suits your needs.

5. Select an instance type: In the “Step 2: Choose an Instance Type” section, select an instance type that meets your needs in terms of CPU, memory, storage, and other specifications. You can choose from a variety of instance types, ranging from low-cost, low-performance options to high-performance, high-cost options.

6. Configure the instance details: In the “Step 3: Configure Instance Details” section, you can configure various details about the instance, such as the number of instances to launch, the VPC network, and the subnet. You can also enable or disable features such as auto-assign public IP and detailed monitoring.

7. Add storage: In the “Step 4: Add Storage” section, you can add storage to the instance by choosing an Elastic Block Store (EBS) volume and specifying its size and type. You can also choose to use instance storage, which is temporary storage that is physically attached to the instance.

8. Configure security settings: In the “Step 5: Add Tags” and “Step 6: Configure Security Group” sections, you can configure security settings for the instance. You can create or select a security group, which acts as a virtual firewall that controls inbound and outbound traffic to the instance. You can also add tags to the instance to help organize and identify it.

9. Review the instance details and launch the instance: In the “Step 7: Review Instance Launch” section, review the details of the instance and make sure everything is configured correctly. Then, click on the “Launch” button to launch the instance.

Once the instance is launched, you can connect to it using SSH and begin configuring it for your specific use case.