For this article, I'll assume that you already have Ubuntu installed. It's one of the easiest distro's out there to install, ranking right up there with Fedora and Suse. After installation is complete, and you log in for the first time, you'll most likely be prompted to install updates. Install these updates and reboot before continuing. Typically, you don't need to reboot after an update, but just in case you updated your kernel, go ahead and do it.