I installed Ubuntu on a triple boot system with Windows ME and XP. Ubuntu is a good choice for a noobie like me. Ive installed Linux several times only to go back to Windows. Im a long time Windows Power user which doesnt do me a whole lot in Linux. Ive got my Ubuntu customized a bit and learning a few things to automate my usage. I installed VMware and put a copy of XP there. Vmware is a very impressive piece of work and works pretty well overall. I installed aMSN that works good too. Windows XP is a very good OS and you can do a lot with it. But MS is going in the wrong direction with Vista. I think thats why you are seeing more people look at distros like Ubuntu. One thing I notice about Ubuntu is it is definately more secure right out of the box. Windows XP can handle a work load, but not as well as Linux. Linux definately seems more sturdy and secure. Ubuntu has really refined doing things in Linux like program installs and just overall ease of use. I could see where a Ubuntu box would work very well as a desktop for an office etc. The newest version of Openoffice is very impressive as well. Linux has some very cool programs and features not ever found on a Windows machine. Ive been running Linux all day and its never used more than 300 megs of memory and hasnt use the swap file yet. I hope the Linux open source community keeps working on improving Linux. I think the future of computing is Linux. Companies like VMware have made the first step by making some of there fine programs free to the public. Because the first thing a long time Windows user wants is to be able to get back to what they know best Windows. By being able to boot into Windows within Linux gives you that safety blanket feeling. I think I will keep this Distro around for a while and see if I can make the switch to open source, a lot of other people have done it............so can I. I think MS shot themself in the foot big time with Vista. Its way overpriced and not worth the trouble. And a waste of good hardware, you shouldnt need two gigs of ram to run your OS and a 200 plus dollar video card. So I say thanks to the Linux community for your long arduous efforts to keep Linux alive.

if you think ubuntu is fast and stable try some other distros. clearly you're comfortable managing your HD so why not give something _really_ fast and incredibly stable a try. get slackware 11.0 http://www.slackware.com/ close your windows. open your mind. get slackware linux