I tried dual-booters before. Years ago first SuSe (nightmare). Not so long ago Ubuntu (still couldn't get the sound to work), but MAN! Linux has come a long was since then. When they told me
LinuxMINT 16 is beginner-friendly, they weren't kidding.
I went for the popular Cinemon distribution, 64 bit. After downloading the reccomended free burning utility, from what I preceived to be the official site, sure enough I caught a fucking browser hijjacker before I managed to cancel the procedure. This affirmed my desire to try Linux for my non-gaming internet-exposed activities. Luckily the second link I tried turned out to be solid, and soon I was burning the IOS to a DVD.
After booting LinuxMint 16 I got a nice look at what my sleek future desktop would look like after clicking on that one extra icon on the desktop...
INSTALL LINUX
Creating the dual booter was a breeze. Just slide-adjust how much room you want to reserve for respectively Windows and Linux, and proceed. (I went with a modest 50 gig, because I barely download anything, and I'm keeping Windows for my gaming needs). You're put through the motions of inventing your username and password, and choosing a language and keyboard layout, but the installwizzard guessed my region correct, and set the clock and callender correctly by itself.
The reboot took a moment. I guess that Windows had to make some one-time adjustments after scooting over to make room for the Penguin, so I let it do its thing. It booted into Windows, after the reshuffle and restart, smoothly. Time to reboot one more time and dive into LinuxMINT 16...
Right 'out of the box' everything works like a charm. Even the sound. A little trip to the (quickly found) driver manager, told me that out of the list of available drivers for my videocard the reccomended one wasn't sellected yet, so I ticked the box on that puppy and clicked "apply".
A few seconds later that was that. I had everything sucessfully up and running. Ready to browse, post, watch and listen to youtube. WOW!
The application manager is much like an app-store full of free goodies to browse through. From here you can install and uninstall everything with one simple click. LinuxMint already has pre-made folders, it cleverly organizes stuff into, for you. A video you download will sure enough end up in the files/videos folder. That game you installed automaticly ends up in the games section.
After installing Minitube, typing in a keyword (I chose acapella) and watching a seemless stream of youtubevideos, without commercials, and discovering the damn thing downloads youtube videos too I was sold.
This dual-booter is a keeper.
http://www.linuxmint.com/PS. if you burn a live-cd or create a "STICKLINUX" USB pendrive (there are how-to's on youtube), LinuxMint16 Cinamon will run straight off the dvd/stick with hi-res video, sound, and internet capability, so you needn't even install it in order to give it an in depth try.