Switching from Windows 7 to Ubuntu and need help

Question

First I want to say welcome to the community and I humbly ask for your expertise.

1.I want to fully overwrite Windows with Ubuntu. Is it as simple as just downloading over it?

2.should I use 32bit or 64bit?

3.what makes 64bit better?

4.can my relatively old computer even run 64bit?

CPU-intel pentium D dual core 3.40ghz
GPU-radeon hd 6570
RAM-6GB DDR2
Motherboard-HP OA58H

You should only ask one question per question otherwise it makes it difficult to answer but (1)How do I install Ubuntu?. (2) I'd go with whatever your Win7 is if you have 64-bit Win7 then 64-bit Ubuntu otherwise 32-bit. (3)What is the difference between 32-bit and 64-bit and which should I choose?. (4) Yes pentium D is dual core and 64-bit capable. — Warren Hill, Jul 17 '13 at 11:37
I'd also advice not to hurry up with overwriting Windows, because it probably will lead to loosing some important data, and, well, Ubuntu is different, so it will take a time to become used to it. Also having two systems is sometimes more reliable. — Danatela, Jul 17 '13 at 11:49

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 17 '13 at 11:38

No. Best is to download Ubuntu 64-bit, burn it to a cd (or use LinuxLive USB Creator to 'burn'it to a USB) ten boot from it and install from there. The installation will guide you trough it.
64, Your CPU can handle 64-bit.
It has some instructionsets that sometimes improves speed and can handle al lot more ram then 32 bit. (32 bit = 3.5 GB max, 64 bit = 128GB max)
Yes. If your CPU can do it, your pc can do it. 64 bit even has little to do with speed, its just an instructionset.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 17 '13 at 11:36

Just download the iso file, burn it on any dvd or usb media. Then restart your computer from that particular media. You will get option to install ubuntu in different way. If you want replace windows 7 with ubuntu, you need to choose the option "erase every thing and install ubuntu". There is lots of other option you can explore them.
Choosing 64 bit or 32 bit completely depends on you. For normal use they does not differ very much. But since you have 6 GB of ram, I will suggest use 64 bit os.
64 bit has better speed and it can access more system memory. It has also some other advantages which I don't know completely.
The configuration you have provided seems you can easily install ubuntu 64 bit in that system.

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

I recommend to install Ubuntu using the CD or USB installer. For both, you should download the corresponding .ISO file from the Ubuntu Download page and either burn it to DVD (or CD if you have an empty one big enough) or follow the Ubuntu bootable USB guide. I advice against using WUBI, since WUBI will install Ubuntu on the current Windows partition along Windows.

During installation, (at least if everything goes OK) the Ubuntu installer will ask you if you want to install Ubuntu along Windows, or if you want to overwrite Windows.
If it works, and on your CPU it probably will, use 64bit. The reason is:
You can expect better performance with 64bit, at the cost of additional RAM usage. Sergey, another askubuntu user, wrote an excellent explanation of the differences between 32bit and 64bit. Also, all 64bit CPUs have SSE, so it is enabled system wide, leading to improved floating point performance compared to the i386 fpu used in older 32bit CPUs. Nevertheless, I think, on Ubuntu also on 32bit SSE is enabled, but honestly I don't know (could someone please edit this answer and add this information? Thanks!).
Usually it should run 64bit. At least the article on Wikipedia on Pentium D states that it is x86_64 capable.

Switching from Windows 7 to Ubuntu and need help

3 Answers3