MadMonkey: My only real question with the likes is how it copes with shop bought PC software....games, etc.

Will they work.. or do I need to think about a dual o/s?

(V): My first step last year was a dual o/s, but once i got used to most of it, its fine. Of course you will come across problems because as toedder says, people are so blinded to Windows as it comes with every computer you buy. To start with i missed some programs as they will not run on linux based systems, and as mention below WINE will allow most programs to run, BUT if you search the Ubuntu Software Centre the are some great programs that will do the same as any Windows one. Now i am happy with a single boot Ubuntu on here and have a Linux Mint / Windows XP on my backup machine. Sadly i still have to keep up with Windows or i wouldn't get income repairing them

I would recommend to anyone, run a dual boot for a while and get used to it.

MadMonkey: Sounds good, I'll look into it. My only other question (though logically the answer is no) .... there are no problems with board drivers or is that something WINE would be able to handle, or would be fixable via the UBUNTU software centre?

as to Windows.. I remember PC's before Windows.. when the likes of X tree gold (sp) were the way. Or, as I use to own, the o/s of the Amiga systems (RIP) .. It was nice to able alter a few lines in a duplicate of the start up disc to make the screen as you wanted it.

(V): there are no problems with board drivers or is that something WINE would be able to handle, or would be fixable via the UBUNTU software centre?

Well, I'm not exactly sure what you refer to with board drivers. But in general, driver installation on Ubuntu is a charm, as the system will detect all but the most exotic hardware, and load drivers automagically. The only exception is, if your piece of hardware is not supported by open source drivers. In every case that I came across, Ubuntu told me there was a proprietary driver available, and asked whether I wanted to download and install it. I said yes, and the download and installation was seamless. Compare that to hunting down drivers on vendors' sites with Windows. Also there is ndiswrapper, which will let you install and use Windows drivers for hardware that isn't otherwise supported, but that would be mostly old and obscure WinModems, etc. My system even instantly recognized my old TV stick that I couldn't even get the Windows drivers for... (well, not in a couple of hours of search)

It was nice to able alter a few lines in a duplicate of the start up disc to make the screen as you wanted it.

You'll love Linux. In Linux you will be able to change pretty much every setting, behavior, you name it, by editing text files. In Ubuntu less than in some other distros, as Ubuntu's goal is to be newbie friendly, and that leads to them making some decisions that limit control in favor of "easiness". But I don't think you'd usually notice that until you have spent a significant amount of time with Ubuntu and then other Linuxes.

toedder: as in the motherboard... but from you've said it looks like no problems.

MadMonkey: what's a dual boot?

Artful Dodger: Dual boot is installing the 2 system along side each other> when you install Ubuntu it will ask you all the questions, as in do you want to format the disk and just have Ubuntu OR Install Ubuntu along side Windows. Once that is done, your computer will ask you when you turn it on which system you would like to run. The best thing is Ubuntu will let you access any files you have stored in Windows. Sadly Window will not do the same with Ubuntu, well i have not found a way yet lol, maybe toedder knows.

MadMonkey: Cool. So can I just download and install from the hard drive or should I put ubuntu on a disk and install that way?

MadMonkey: you have to know what your doing to use that unless the interface has improved.