Before installing...

[rbwilley]

I used to use ubuntu a long time ago because it ran so much faster on my old mac, well I would like to start using it again, but I have a couple questions before I go ahead and jump in.

The first question would be: Will dual booting windows 7 and ubuntu slow down my machine? I have a Dell Inspiron laptop, it has a 2.5ghz processor and 3gb of ram, it runs win 7 with decent speed, but there is a game I play that doesnt seem to run under wine.

The second question would be: I see a netbook version of ubuntu, is that what I would use on a laptop? From my understanding a netbook and laptop were different so I would want to know which ubuntu to download.

[sikander3786]

Welcome to the forums :-)

Regarding your first question, a dual-boot should not render your computer slow as each OS is running apparently, independent of the other. The only thing it costs is disk space.

Secondly, Ubuntu Netbook Edition is intended for smaller screen Netbooks. However the Netbook interface is going to become the default in even 11.04 Desktop Edition i.e, Unity, I would still suggest to go for the Desktop Edition. And better if you choose 10.04 because that is a LTS (Long Term Support) release.

An even better option would be to burn Live CDs or USBs of both Ubuntu Desktop and Netbook Edition for both 10.04 and 10.10 and test Ubuntu from the Live environment without making any changes to your computer. That way, you would know the differences between the two and can choose wisely then ;-)

And test all your hardware with those versions. Install the one that better suits you and your PC.