14.04 worked for me fine with that guide. You can skip the compile as you're just going to download the binary anyway, but only do this if you know your way around the CLI as you'll have to ignore or change some later steps where you replace the compiled darkcoind with the binary one. If unsure just run through it all as is, takes an extra 15 minutes, no big deal.
Thanks. I tried 14.04 and when I was almost done with Part 2, I got an error that I didn't see explained anywhere. I'm going to start over and pay more attention this time.