

I've used Xubuntu on an old laptop in the past, and have been relatively happy with it. My desktop, which has XP on it, is a ~5 yo Dell XPS 400, with the original XP install. It's really started to creep the last year or so, and it takes forever for the thing to startup, and apps to load - when they finally load they frequently crash. When I run the occasional antivirus/antispyware program I usually come up with something that needs repaired/quarantined.



So is this a good candidate for a complete wipe of windows? I have Wubi installed and the performance of Ubuntu doesn't seem that great. Could this be because of my shoddy windows partition?



If I should just clear Windows, how exactly should I setup my partitions on the new Linux install? I've heard of people making a separate partition for their home folder or something, so it makes upgrading easier. Does this make sense?



Finally, I basically just use my desktop for surfing, word processing, playing mp3's, and watching movies. Is Ubuntu a good candidate for this - or is it mostly bloat? Would I be better off with something a little more customizeable? My highest priority would be speed, but I'd also like a distro that looks clean and modern. I don't need any fancy rotating cube effects, etc.



Thanks for the help

I'm thinking of getting rid of Windows XP and switching to a Linux distro....and I have some questions.