Sorry I'm really quite the linux newbie. Do you have any guides on how to do this.

The monitors resolution is correct when running Ubuntu off the flash drive. Does that mean anything.

No I'm not using an external monitor.

I just recently installed ubuntu 11.04 on an old Inspiron 1100 laptop. Everything works fine except it's only displaying in the upper left half of the screen. An older netbook edition displayed correctly. Any help is very appreciated,thank you.

So, I have had some success. I am typing this from the computer with PCLinuxOS KDE Desktop installed. Unfortunately I'm also having some problems. Overall the OS seems a tad sluggish, online videos play but are very choppy, and there is no sound for anything.
I was also wondering if any of the distros made specifically for netbooks are any good,such as EasyPeasy.

Thanks

Thank you for the responses.

@marc
Wich one of those would a windows user find easiest to become accustomed to.
Also I did try running Ubuntu off a thumb drive everything seemed to work except the wi-fi connection. It detected the network said I was connected but when I clicked on the Firefox icon nothing happened ,no error message ,nothing. I also read that the most current version of Ubuntu should have at least 1GB of memory. This netbook only has 512 MB and I dont think the user will be upgrading.

@atreyu
Unfortunately I believe that is an older version of this netbook so Im not entirely certain if everything will work quite the same. Also I believe that the netbook edition has been merged with the current Ubuntu 11.04 release.

Thank you for all answers.:)

Hello I became interested in linux after I fixed a neighbors netbook that had some problems. I temporarily installed xp but will need to switch this out. I had heard of linux and thought I would install it for them,but that was before I even knew about the mutiple distributions. So my questions are: what would be best to install for someone that probably doesn't even know about linux and is used to windows ,and how do know if I can find, and where can I find the necessary drivers. The netbook is a Sylvania Meso with an ATOM n450 1.66GHz cpu and I think the Graphics is intel N10 Family Integrated Graphics Controller,512 MB RAM. Thank you.