Since I did not want to risk loosing existing content on my system, and added to it the fact I was installing Ubuntu as a secondary OS, I choose to go safe by Installing it on existing Windows Partition. There is a decrease in performance associated with it but was ok with me.

To install on existing Windows Partition, start a Windows session and insert the CD and execute it (if autorun fails). You get option to check the demo (by booting from CD) and performing the installation from within demo or “Install inside Windows”. Choose the latter.

First you need to choose the drive where you want to install, Interface Language, and a username and password. (Don’t choose admin as it’s a reserved username)

The above screen has an “Accessibility” button that allows you to install accessibility features as Screen Reader, Magnifier, Braille terminal etc. You can choose to skip this step by keeping ‘None’ selected and return to above screen by pressing “Next”. Click on install.

Done with above steps? Now the installation proceeds at its own till completion. It first checks the installation files.

It then creates images. The '’home’, ‘root’, ‘usr’ folders as seen from within Linux all exist as single files within windows partition.

Done! Remove the CD, Reboot, and choose Ubuntu in boot loader menu.

Now after my recent notebook purchase I thought I should install Linux as secondary OS, but where would I get latest CDs? The magazines that carry Linux distributions don’t do it every month and finding a back-issue was a difficult task. I checked the web and found https://shipit.ubuntu.com/ which delivers free CDs around the globe for promoting ubuntu. Since the delivery alone can take 4-6 weeks, they suggest and provide ISO image download too, but with my net connection having a limit of max 1GB per month I thought requesting a CD would be better.

I requested the CDs and it took 10 days for approval and shipping to the courier company. And within next 5 weeks the CDs were with me. Thanks to Canonical for the Free CDs, and thanks to Indian Postal Services too who delivered it to me despite second line of address missing from the address label.

If you too are requesting the CD make it sure that you write your ZIP/PIN code accurately and include as much info as possible in the first line of address itself. This would ensure that you will receive the CDs even if the same problem happens in your case too. And in case you can afford to download 700+ MB of ISO image you can start using Ubuntu right away. The url for download is http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download.