dual boot ?

How large is the extended? If that's around the 2-4gb size you simply need to shrink the NTFS primary down somewhat for the root of the distro you go with. Or you simply delete that to save on time if it's large like 10-20gb and create a new one much smaller for the swap. Then you have room for the VFat primary type.

Since Linux will easily run on much smaller partitions many like the idea of running Linux on now far outdated older systems seeing small 4-8gb HDs there. For most drives note that you are limited to only 4 primary type partitions while you can see a large number of extended types. You do have plan your drive out first in order to know the partitioning scheme you will need.
 
well its on a 30gb, so i gave 20 to xp and 10 to linux which i formated in the ext should i make it down to 6gb and make another 4gb
 
well i burnt ultimate 2 times and it still locked up on clicking setup so i just download the reg ubuntu and its doin setup but it wants me to partition again when i already have and is compiz compatible with this
 
When partitioning you first have to choose the correct type. The different partition types are seen on a drop down list when using GParted. You can probably go for a 2gb swap and leave the remaining space available for the root. The menu seen in the drop down will show Linux as well as others like NTFS and Fat. Linux uses a form of VFat for both the root and swap while the root is seen on a primary type.
 
You should probably just go buy a second hard drive considering how cheap they are. I assume this is a desktop?

Okay, so your partition schema should be something like this

hda1 - NTFS
hda2 - ext3
swap - create a swap partition, good rule of thumb is to create it using the standard formula of using double the amount of ram. For example if you have 1gig of ram, make your swap partition 2 gigs in size.

Install windows first, the windows installer is dumb and basic and lacks many features one would want. Install it like you would normally and go ahead and partition the whole disk with NTFS when you set up windows, you will later resize your partitions with the Linux OS installer.

Boot from your flavor of Linux CD (or Live CD with installer) and choose to install Linux. Install it like you would any other OS and follow the instructions on the wizard. When it comes to partitioning you want to create two new partitions on the windows volume (or on a blank HD if you just buy another). One swap and one root (also referred to as / ) and just follow the schema mentioned previously. It will then install, and you will have to set up your account during this process.

Set up your user account, remember your password you will need it a lot when running commands or accessing root level files. If you use ubuntu you will authenticate against the /etc/sudoers directory so a root account will not be needed, just an admin account.

Then the best way to install compiz is doing so through apt, which is a terminal based package manager for debian based distros of Linux and since ubuntu is debian based, you will use apt. You will do this from the command line and it will resolved all dependicies and download and install all packages needed over the internet, pretty handy from just one command eh?

example code
Code: 
sudo apt-get install compiz

I don't have the time to go into extreme detail but I did take the time to google search someone who has taken the time and it is all right here for your reading pleasure. (that could be a run on sentence??)

http://compiz.org/Ubuntu_Installation_Guide
 
t u couldnt have posted at a better time i was just gettin ready to mess with compz i already have my dual boot done after taking some time to mess with it last night
 
Follow the instructions that tlarkin is giving you there and you should see good results. I was under the impression that some larger distros ran better with a primary type of root partition. But I've been aways from any serious dedication to Linux in general while favoring live distros for data recovery when needed.
 
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