Before I get myself in trouble?
 

Actually I hope it isn't too late being this computer is a gift I have been given.

Linux has been crawling for me through the past couple years and a distribution suggestions for the following computer is really what I am looking for.
Dell Inspiron 15V 15.6" Laptop Computer, Intel Core i3-3227U, 6GB Memory, 500GB Hard Drive Model #: I15RV-6145BLK

My intentions are small business practices, home use and camping DVD movie monitor when out hunting.

I have some experience with Ubuntu and Lubuntu such as restricted extras and so on to get everything running but I have found Ubuntu to be slowing over the years so this is why I am here asking for help.

Edit: I forgot to mention I plan to dual boot next to Windows 8 so I can utilize my Garmin software as well.

The specification of your computer is quite enough to run any distro and almost any application. I wonder how linux distro is being slowed down on it.

Please give some detail how you feel that it is slowing over time.

How much work are you willing to put in? How familiar are you with Linux?

?

Ubuntu 12.04 on my HP Desktop has been pretty slow, I'd have to get the specs for you.

Lubuntu 13.04 on my Dell mini 10 (Atom 270 I believe) has been locking up on Youtube videos, something I do to research aspects of a small business I am getting into.

Chris,
I have installed a few flavors of linux on a few computers back to 9.04 Ubuntu.

Edit: Thank for your posts, I think I got this one covered.

distros like fedora or openSuse would be carrying most of the applications but then you will have to work on the restricted format problems. However those things are simply a matter of a click. I am not sure about their performance though. Even in my HP laptop with amd processor i had a really difficult time finding the correct distro which at least would run on the platform. With openSuse 12.3 it took about 50 to 60 secs to boot. Once on the run there's hardly any notable difference. In my opinion lightweight distros like arch or lfs would do a great job, though both of them requires a certain degree of expertise. linux mint is a good option. you can try it.

The biggest boost to speed and stability, in my opinion/experience, would be to leave the Ubuntu family.

The most stable/reliable I have personally found on my hardware are: Debian Stable, Slackware, CentOS/Scientific.

These distros are a bit more advanced/DIY but with big payoff in long-term usability.

Dell Mini 10 is simply a slower computer than your 15v, it will not run as fast no matter what distro.

Good luck!

Yes the HP was a bit more troublesome to get running on Linux it's dual booted with Vista so a total scrub is very likely to happen sometime this winter.

I can understand about the mini being an Atom 270 and it is going to be replaced with the new laptop.

I have just been doing a little research and SolydK looks very interesting, video editing is lacking a bit in the original package but shouldn't be an issue to install upgrades. KDE Debian based with a Mint twist I guess. The only real hesitance I have is it may not be supported very long.

Give PcLinux a look.

I have downloaded SolydK64 from this site, used Unetbootin for live USB prep and SolydK64 doesn't want to load as it should. USBs are not recognized, doesn't even name a partition area. It could be me and an error with Unetbootin or something but I have tried both DVD and Flashdrive installs with no luck so far.

Edit: I forgot to mention the Flash Drive was prepared on Ubuntu 12.04LTS and the DVD with Vista but I forgot the name of the burner, I'm booted into Ubuntu now.

Can be more clear. What is the error you get while you first booted it from DVD or flashdrive.
Does your motherboard support bootable USBs???? Check that out first.

Being the issues I was having with SolydK I ended up going the Cinnomint route which went off flawlessly and is working without a glitch so far. I would have preferred SolydK but Cinnomint is close and its up and working now.

Mint will do everything you want without any extra work. So will any number of other distros as well. Your machine is capable of running any distro you want.