rans6andrew, if you want to go the Ubuntu route (it would certainly avoid the vast majority of malware problems) it's best to do a little research first - Googling your particular netbook & Ubuntu should reveal any specific hardware issues.
You
could try it on a USB flash drive first as an experiment/proof of concept.
It's not hard to install it alongside Windows if you want to keep that & set Ubuntu as the first boot option.
Have a read here:
Download | Ubuntu