Why thank you for the replies everyone.All of you have been very helpful :) . Just one question for goineasy9. Will that EasyBCD work for online downloaded OS? Or disk only?

Hello, me again, I am wondering does anyone consider a dual boot a good idea or a bad one? I wanted to get rid of windows vista but I have some files and other items I wanted to keep on there.So I was considering a dual boot instead, considering I could let guests, family and friends use the windows side to do what they wanted and I have a linux OS that I could do the things I wanted to.As my own personal space I guess. I was also wondering if anyone else has done this? Lastly if someone could explain the pros and cons that come with Dual booting, that would be awsome.

P.S. Sorry if this is in the wrong spot for the forums.I really didn't know where else to put this particular subject.

Ok thank you very much for the reply and explaining the term "out of the box" for me =). Found it funny though you used the term right after explanation haha. Um may I ask though why you recommend that particular distro? I ask because people have different reasons but the main one I hear the most about is Ubuntu as being a starter.Oh and since I am asking I figure I will say that I want to learn how to make websites, how to code and program. Haven't decided where to go from there though. Maybe I will find out while I learn =).

Hi I am new and I need to know what would the right distro would be for my laptop? Also I hear the term "out of the box" a lot and was wondering if it means i have to order the disk or if I can actually download it from the site? Lastly I am gonna list what kind of laptop I have and it's specs and would like to know if any linux distros cause problems for my particular laptop in anyway ( like if anyone has dealt with this particular scenario before with someone else or has experience with the two ) ?

Here are my laptop specs:

An Acer Aspire 5610-2762

Intel Pentium dual-core processor T2080 ( 1.73 GHz, 533 MHz FSB, 1 MB L2 cache )

15.4" WXGA Acer CrystalBrite LCD (16ms) ( I don't think listing the screen size and what kind of monitor would matter but I threw it in there for the sake of completeness lol.)

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950

160GB HDD

DVD-Super Multi double layer (support DVD+R Double layer/DVD+RW)

2GB DDR2

802.11b/g wireless LAN

OS: Windows vista ( I want to change from this OS as soon as I can lol)

Well that's all, I think, if you anyone needs to know anything else just let me know and will be happy to share. Thanks for reading and any help that is provided.