Its good to know that you r on the right track..... I've been using for almost 7 years from redhat 6 .. Right now i'm using Ubunut, and loving each moment of it... its far better than anything..... For the newbie try out Ubuntu you'll surely love it... and for you Prabin go to www.ubuntuguide.org You will find everything you want to setup in you laptop... I've Ubuntu and Solaris dual boot in my hp .... Enjoy