As some people might feel awkward switching from Windows to Linux, Vmware is the perfect solution. It’s a virtual machine, which means you can run Ubuntu, or any Linux distrubution for that matter, inside Windows, without partitioning, or changing your hard-drive in any way.

First:

Download VMware Player HERE or HERE.

Download Ubuntu HERE

Done! Simply extract the files somewhere, and load them up with the VMware player.

If you want other OS’s (OpenBsd, Solaris, etc.) visit www.vmware.com/appliances/

or HERE