How to install Ubuntu in dual boot? Beginner's talk

A lot of my friends requested me to write on the process of installing Ubuntu OS. So, here I am.

The process is relatively simple if you want to install it from internet. Just download the Ubuntu version ISO file from the Ubuntu site
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download

Generally we use a 32 bit machine - so choose that option. Now you have 11.10 released! Every 6 months Ubuntu comes up with an upgrade. You can download it from Windows OS of your computer and it is a 700 mb file. It would take sometime for slow internet speed. Don't forget to download via any download manager like Internet download manager, as the connection may snap if you have a slow connection.

Next, download any ISO extractor program like ExtractNow from Softpedia.
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Compression-tools/ExtractNow.shtml

Now using the ISO extractor, extract the files to a folder where you want to install Ubuntu. Once the extraction is complete, click and open the file Wuvi.exe and follow the guidelines to install Ubuntu. You can select the drive and size of Ubuntu installation. If you want to seriously try some variety of apps in Ubuntu, be sure to provide around 17 GB of space for Ubuntu installation.

Generally the installation process is hassle free. Once the installation is complete, restart the system. On rebooting, you'll be provided with a choice of OS's if you have a dual boot set up (meaning two OS in the computer). You can choose Ubuntu to start.

You may face the problem that I faced for the first time. Ubuntu OS won't read the LAN for me initially. Don't panic, just shut down the computer, remove the power cables and start back after 5 minutes - things will be back to normal.

Internet speed is really great in Ubuntu and it is much faster than Windows.

For Sify users, I have a blog entry which you can use to set up Sify in Ubuntu.

Once you have Ubuntu installed and the internet connection is working, you can type the following command to update Ubuntu. This is a big pain in Ubuntu that a lot of updates are required initially to make it functional. But, it doesn't take much time to install around 250 mb of updates.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade