Resurrecting an old thread: I've just installed Ubuntu Natty Narwhal (11.04) 64-bit as a dual-boot on my Dell Studio XPS 1340 laptop. It hasn't been a total success; I've got NVidia graphics drivers to allow the use of Unity, but no Flash, Java, or other codecs to allow video playback. I tried to get Google Earth 6 installed, but failed miserably - even after extensive searches to secure a bit of help.
That's a shame. The last time I tangled with Ubuntu (for a colleague's machine) everything did Just Work, from the wifi to the graphics. I'm a Fedora user personally, and couldn't be happier with it.
On the offchance that you didn't already do all this:
To install Flash, download the 64-bit Linux link from
here, extract it, and move the libflashplayer.so file to ~/.mozilla/plugins
To install Java, download the JRE from
here and run the shell script in there (you'll need to run it as root IIRC).
Skip installing specific codecs for Movieplayer and get VLC instead (available via apt-get).
Oh also, if this is your first time using the NVidia drivers on Linux, be aware that every kernel update will mean you need to reinstall them. Leave the installer file on your system.