thanks a million for all the feedback and suggestions.

I needed to be sure I didn’t damage the Windows partition because I have one or two programs on it which I need - specifically Pinnacle Studio video editing suite.

I tried the Ubuntu Live CD but I wasn’t confident enough that the options given in the installer wouldn’t wipe my Windows partition so I backed out of that route.

I didn’t want to go the VMWare/VirtualPC route because I wanted to see what Ubuntu’s performance is like when installed in its own partition.

@Steven - there were no T&C’s precluding me from installing another OS on the laptop but thanks for thinking of it.

The Ubuntu LiveCD install allows you to boot from CD to play with Ubuntu. Once booted in LiveCD you can install from there. It includes gnome partition editor (gparted) which allows you to resize the existing windows partition.

You need to select ’specify my own partitions’ or something like that rather than the default for full control. This will install ubuntu on the new partition and grub (boot menu to select OS).

I’m no longer using windows, and am kicking myself at the wasted disk I’ve given, so thats something to consider.

If you decide to go the full way, VMWare server console is available for free and you can run windows as a virtual PC inside ubuntu.

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-install-vmware-server-from-canonical-commercial-repository-in-ubuntu-feisty.html

Alternative approach is to run Ubuntu *inside* Vista usual free tools such as Microsoft Virtual PC or VMWare (I tend to prefer the 2nd product).

The advantage is that you can have ‘both machines’ open at the same time, and not to have to switch between them. I think the concept is broadly similar to Paralells for the Mac.

Paul

If Vista is installed onto a straightforward NTFS partition (i.e. no funny business on the part of the manufacturer with hidden partitions for system restores), then you will probably be able to use the provided Disk Management features to resize this partition to make room on the HDD for another; see http://vistarewired.com/2007/02/16/how-to-resize-a-partition-in-windows-vista/. I’ve used the feature for this very purpose, and it did the trick.

Having done this, the Ubuntu installer can be directed to install its OS into the free space on the disk and it should more or less automatically configure a boot menu with an option to start Windows.

Also, Vista’s “Backup and Restore Center” has an option to “Create a Windows Complete PC Backup and Restore image of your entire computer, which can be used to recover from a hardware failure,” it says here. I have not tried this, so can’t provide an opinion as to how good/bad/indifferent it is. But it’s there.

Or, as Paul says above, Virtual PC is a perfectly good tool for playing with other operating systems, with none of the fuss I’ve described. Also one wonders whether, the machine having been provided by Microsoft for the purposes of receiving feedback on Vista, there aren’t clause(s) in the T&Cs precluding installation of other, non-virtualized, operating systems; perhaps as a condition for continuing to receive support?

Think PC World and broken hinges..

I would highly recommend installing Ubuntu using Virtual PC - a free download from Microsoft.com.
Virtual PC is useful for all kinds of things, including installing linux distros. No need for any hard drive partition worries.

@David - brilliant, thanks for the recommendation.

Backup first though, I didn’t have anything on the Vista partition I wanted to keep