echoance,
if you're just wanting to give linux a try, before making the switch whole hog, google 'wubi'. it's a linux ubuntu installer that will allow you to do a dual boot configuration, without actually having to create partitions and whatnot. if you find that you don't like ubuntu, you can just boot into windows, and remove wubi like any other program, and you're back to normal. if you do decide to try it, i highly suggest doing some serious defragmentation of your hard drive first. jkdefrag does a pretty good job, but it takes a while.
i really liked ubuntu, but there aren't any linux drivers for my high end sound card (that are easily obtainable), which meant that i was getting NO sound out, which is a drag. if it wasn't for that, i probably would have stuck with it. on my next computer i will probably keep on-board sound and then make the switch again.
if you don't need to do oodles of things, then linux is really nice. if you are really computer savvy, then linux is nice. if you're somewhere in between, it can get to be a little bit of a pain. using 'sudo' commands in the terminal can get to be tedious, but for most people that are only going to doing email, listen to music, watch movies, etc, the synaptec installer is pretty sweet and will get your programs for you. i know just enough to get myself in pretty deep crap, and not enough to get out, lol. that's why i went back to windows. i can handle most digging around in windows, but i don't know enough unix to work well in linux. i LIKE messing around with my computer, but without knowing the language, you can see the mess you can get into...
