I transferred this from another thread.
Ubuntu is a Linux distribution that sits on top of Debian and uses the Gnome desktop (KUbuntu uses KDE).
Actually, I didn't have any real problems with installation or use except for getting a clean copy off of my CD Burner and not realizing that I had a bad hard drive.
The only part that required extra effort was my WiFi card. In Ubuntu 6.10, I had to find a driver for my cards chipset. For 7.04 I used the .INF and .SYS files from my previous search, but I was able to use the included Synaptic package manager to find and install a nice graphical front-end for NDISwrapper, the utility that puts Windows drivers in a Linux 'wrapper'. It took me 1/2 hour the first time to find out the chipset for my WiFi card and find the appropriate driver (I could have just tried the drivers included with my card). It took me 5 minutes to download and use the graphical interface to set my WiFi card up the second time with Ubuntu 7.04.
For what I intend to do with my laptop (Internet, word processing, and spreadsheet), I have had no problems with Ubuntu 6.10. Ubuntu 7/04 was released about a week ago, so I am on the leading edge, but still I haven't had any problems.
Once you get a clean CD burned, installation is about 20 minutes. You boot from the CD to Ubuntu, look around at the features, and if you like it click the Install icon to have it wipe your drive and install.
If you want something closer to %100 Windows look and feel, FreeSpire Linux sounds interesting.
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