I'm a little confused as to whether I should install Ubuntu on its own partition on my hard drive, use VirtualBox or another virtualization package to install it, or use Wubi to install it directly on top of my current OS (Win 7). I definitely want to learn and use Ubuntu, so this is not just for playing around with it.

Also, if I choose to partition, should I partition the hard drive myself or should I let the Ubuntu installation menu do it for me? I understand that I am going to need a main partition, for Ubuntu's core components, and also a swap partition. Then there is the option to add a partition for "home"- I don't understand what combination of these partitioning options I should choose, or whether it is better to partition in Windows before I install Ubuntu or just partition my hard drive when I install Ubuntu itself