Step 1: Planning and Setup

Lower ALL of your World of Warcraft settings to minimum.  Archive all AddOns then remove them. Archive all the Patches you have, we might need them.  (The usefulness of this comes in later.)

Backup ALL files to burned CD and/or Flash Drive.  We are going to attempt to keep all of your Windows Files (including Warcraft), but life isn’t always fair, is it?

Get your copy of Ubuntu.  You can download it (along with a iso burner program) straight from http://www.ubuntu.com or if you prefer, you can purchase a cd to be sent to you for a few bucks (the cost of the cd.  The software is free.)

Make a copy of your Ubuntu install cd.  (Mine was picked up by my toddler and shoved into the fireplace grating.  The backup is free (with an “Image Burner”), and good to have.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto

Read this if you have already gotten lost:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwitchingToUbuntu/FromWindows

Don’t read to long, or you’ll stay lost.  I’m walking you through.

BootFromCD

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootFromCD

Here we are actually going to be booting Ubuntu from the CD.  You have the option of exploring Ubuntu, or installing it.  We are going to choose install.

Migration Assistant (informational)

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwitchingToUbuntu/FromWindows/TransferringFilesAndSettings

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MountingWindowsPartitions

You can do that, but I’ll tell you now it’s possible to setup a dual-boot, in which case all your Windows files will be preserved and Ubuntu will usually show them all in your files.