1) make sure your computer is supported by ubuntu. A lot of them are. http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/desktop/

2) download the release that is recommended to you by the Ubuntu Certified Hardware website ex. 12.04 LTS 64-bit ex. 11.10 32-bit

3) create a Ubuntu bootable USB - https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStickQuick

- you can then boot Ubuntu off your flashdrive and play around with it. Any changes you make will not be permanent

4) There should be a link on the desktop to install ubuntu on the desktop. Click it!

5) When asked what installation type, select "something else" - http://askubuntu.com/questions/139270/dual-booting-windows-and-ubuntu I added this link mostly for the pictures, I will explain them in my own phrasing as best I can. you can always google "dual boot windows and ubuntu" and get 100000000 tutorials

\dev\sda is your actual bare-metal harddrive on your computer. if there is a \dev\sdb you probably have 2 physical harddrives, or some other device plugged in sometimes there are 2 windows partitions, sometimes just one. In this case the person's windows install is located on 1 partiton (\dev\sda1)

you should select the windows partition (\dev\sda1) and note that there is a column of "size" and "used" do the math and find out that you have some free space. We will be taking some of the free space from your windows partition and creating a new ubuntu partition with it.

having selected your windows partition, click "change" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBCHsgry2RQ shows a guy resizing his windows partition. we care about what happens at around 3:10 at 4:10 the guy shows a section of free spacce. Thats where we will install ubuntu at 4:50 the guy is creating his ubuntu partition. Make the partition a primary partition so you are allowed to boot from it Make all but about 2GB of your free space into Ext4 formatted the other 2GB will be swap space, which the computer uses as extra memory (RAM) (granted slower) Make the mount point be / which is the root of your ubuntu OS. This means that we are installing the whole OS on one partition, which is good

stop watching at about 6:20. he encounters problems because he had already done screwy things to his harddrive before making this video

pick up agian at 7:05 you will have a little bit (2GB or more) of free space left, which you should make into swap space, like he does in the video

we are done with his video at 8:10

Finish the rest of the installation and you should be done!

Now when you boot your computer, you will get the option to select which OS you want to boot into

any questions, email me- mgaut72@gmail.com

than your actual memory) buts its good to have a little