I use Ubuntu Studio on my laptop, and with the single
panel on the bottom of the screen it looks remarkably like the taskbar in Vista
(which, ironically, my laptop came with before I removed it). I like the way it
looks, personally, but it's one of those cases where your mileage can vary.

I tried removing Vista from the laptop, but I couldn't get all of my
hardware to work in either XP or Linux. The biggest problem with ubuntu was
with the updates. I could get my wifi to work under ubuntu, but once I ran
the updates, my wifi would stop working. I tried it many times. With XP,
almost none of my hardware would work properly. Sound, wifi, you name it.
I'm stuck with Vista.

I like the look and feel of ubuntu and would like that on my laptop. Vista's
Aero doesn't impress me that much. I just want a simple, clean, uncluttered
desktop. I'm not into transparent, 3D, animated windows, or any of that. It
is fluff.

I would like the laptop to run faster, but with Vista, that won't happen.

It's really hard to beat the compatibility of Mepis 7, a Debian etch
version with good hardware detectability. The updates don't break this
KDE distro.
http://mepis.org

I to wondered how I would make my Wifi work after the updates would
not let my Ubuntu install attach to my Atheros card. Yes I know about
MadWifi but have never seen it work reliably for me. I was sure I was
stuck with doze but remembered my ME experience and would not give up.
I found what I needed to make things work for me. I won't repeat what
I have already posted on my blog (simplyrv.imnugget.com) because my
blog may be looked at as duplicate content if I post it here and would
hurt my ratings, but you can read it there.

So you went to a USB plug in unit. I have a Belkin PCM-CIA unit that works
well. It actually works better then the onboard unit, even with Windows. It
is interesting because the Belkin is based on the Atheros 5005 and I thought
the onboard 5007 would be newer and therefore better. Guess not. Who knew.

Why would you want to do that is my first thought. Vista is Vista and
Ubuntu is Ubuntu why change either.

Because I want to strip the glitz off of Vista. It is mostly annoying and
unnecessary. I can't get ubuntu to work properly on it.

So you are booting Ubuntu from within Vista, why not just install it. As
for Vista, what glitz can you not get rid of. perhaps I could tell you
how to do that. Or there are two other ways. Just boot from the Ubuntu
so it open instead or use wubi from here to install to a Vista folder.

https://launchpad.net/wubi