The problem I ran into was I couldn’t get the Ubuntu ISO to fit on a CD.
As for the ‘newer or faster’ - they run just fine on Windows. I’m looking for something to play with on older machines - I downloaded Win10 on an old laptop when MS was offering the free upgrade (which ran fine) but now that they’ve bloated up Win10, I am looking for something more efficient.
The Win10 experience on the laptop did convince me to stick with 7 on my main machine.
Minimum
1gb ram
20gb hdd
Recommended
4gb ram
32gb hdd
No mention of processor GHz
Make a bootable ISO USB stick then. Then set your BIOS to look for a USB external stick to boot from first.
Best stick maker, leaving the options as default in this works just fine for everything.