It's really really easy to install Ubuntu.

But a few things I had to figure out:

• Don't go to NVidia for drivers -- use the "System > Administration > Restricted Drivers Manager"
• for a root shell, "sudo bash"
• "nvidia-xconfig" fixes remaining X problems for my 1900x1200 screen
• sudo apt-get install build-essential (for a workintg gcc)
• the grub.conf is in /boot/grub/menu.lst
• "sudo apt-get install mplayer" works. "totem" might work better for playing videos.

If you install the 64-bit version, you can't get Flash Player (therefore no YouTube) and you can't get Second Life. So install the 32-bit version instead, unless it's just a server.

Oh, and stick to ASUS motherboards. (The ABIT was grief, randomly hanging a lot.)

I just got "ASUS M2N2V-VM" motherboard ($100 at Central Computer on Saratoga Ave at Stevens Creek), AM2 slot, with dual core AMD 64bit Athlon. It has dual video outputs (one analog one digital) and still has two IDE plugs as well as 4 SATA. Ethernet and Audio just worked with Ubuntu 7.04. Second Life gets 8fps at 1024x768, which is good enouogh, using NVidia's drivers (see above).