How to: AMI Basics
-	📒 [User guide](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/AMIs.html)
-	**AMIs** (Amazon Machine Images) are immutable images that are used to launch preconfigured EC2 instances. They come in both public and private flavors. Access to public AMIs is either freely available (shared/community AMIs) or bought and sold in the [**AWS Marketplace**](http://aws.amazon.com/marketplace).
-	Many operating system vendors publish ready-to-use base AMIs. For Ubuntu, see the [Ubuntu AMI Finder](https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/locator/ec2/). Amazon of course has [AMIs for Amazon Linux](https://aws.amazon.com/amazon-linux-ami/).

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