Ubuntu vs. XP

[Motherland]

I'm kind of curious as to your opinions on this. I've used Windows OS's all my life with brief experiences with Mac OS's that led to cursing frustration. Something has possessed me, however, to want to try a new OS, namely Ubuntu.
I know very little about Ubuntu.... I have never used it... I have never seen anyone use it... more than anything else, I'm merely curious.

I have a couple questions, though....
Can I keep all of my files when changing the OS?
Can I somehow keep XP for later if I don't like Ubuntu, without buying another hard drive?
Can I still use Microsoft office? I'm a bit accustomed to the program, I know Ubuntu comes with its own software.
Very importantly; can I still play AHII and other windows games on Ubuntu?

This is my computer... I use it for gaming and school work, not much else, beside skinning.

[Sandman]

Create a dual boot system and keep XP. You can create an Ubuntu (Linux) partition alongside your XP partition. It's easy, the Ubuntu installer will step you through it.

[Motherland]

Well, I screwed up XP while making room on my hard disk for Ubuntu. On restart I got a lovely 'C:\Sys32.dll' or something is corrupted message, luckily I already burned Ubuntu and installed that. I'm ready to try to see what I can salvage and what I can do on this operating system....
First off, it came with Firefox 1 and I can't figure out how to upgrade back to Firefox 3. I'll figure it out, eventually... lol

[GrimCH]

Try Google for the DLL files, you can download and put it in the windows/system or system32 folder.

Then try to restart.

Good luck.

[Motherland]

Thanks...
I actually rather like the Ubuntu interface at this point, I just wish I could get rid of FF1 and upgrade to FF3. Right now I get the file showing up in the FF DL box but when I double click on the file it opens an archive which doesn't seem to have an .exe for install. I know I'm doing something wrong unfortunately I can't find any guides on Mozilla's website.

From what I can tell so far, if I can run Aces High on Ubuntu I won't even worry about re-installing XP.

[GrimCH]

Try this?

http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-3.0&os=linux&lang=en-US

Don't know much about tar.bz2 files for Linux, do they open automatically or do you need a program for it?

[Motherland]

Yeah, I did. Archive manager pops up and I get a bunch of files... it doesn't install automatically and there doesn't seem to be an .exe.
Luckily I backed up all of my WIP skins before screwing up everything.... everything else I can either easily redownload or is on the internet.

[GrimCH]

Hmm...look for a .run file? Just guessing.

[Motherland]

I dunno... I'm going to bed hopefully a Linux wizard will show up later to help me.

BTW, when I go to places> Local disk, it says "Invalid mount option when attempting to mount the volume 'Local Disk'." I'm guessing this is bad?

[Motherland]

I did a system restore. Like I said I backed up everything important externally... Tomorrow will be a long day nonetheless.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

With ubuntu the easyest way to install stuff is to use apt-get.

So you need to do:
sudo apt-get update          , then
sudo apt-get install firefox          for example if you want to install firefox.

Most programs are available through apt-get. The Adept package manager also works with program installs, it gives you a GUI to install stuff. You can search for programs and then choose to install them in it. It's curious that you got firefox1 by the way - it means you used some very old distribution. If I recall correctly Firefox3 was in Ubuntu way before it got released publicly. Download the latest one from Ubuntu website.

I personally recommend Kubuntu with the KDE4 desktop - it's much more familiar to old windows users.

[GrimCH]

I just read.."Do not remove the Ubuntu version of Firefox".

Directions for installing Firefox For Ubuntu...

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FirefoxNewVersion

Burning a CD for Ubuntu myself, so this will be a learning experience for the both of us.

But I'm going to temporarily remove the HDD that has my XP OS on it and use another HDD for the Ubuntu Install.

Anyone know what format I should have on the HDD? NTFS or FAT32? Will it matter?

[Motherland]

Well, now....
I got windows rebooted... went to disk manager... the partition that Ubuntu is on is 'unknown' and unformatted to STFS or FAT32. Is this correct? Or what should I format it to?

With ubuntu the easyest way to install stuff is to use apt-get.

So you need to do:
sudo apt-get update          , then
sudo apt-get install firefox          for example if you want to install firefox.

Most programs are available through apt-get. The Adept package manager also works with program installs, it gives you a GUI to install stuff. You can search for programs and then choose to install them in it. It's curious that you got firefox1 by the way - it means you used some very old distribution. If I recall correctly Firefox3 was in Ubuntu way before it got released publicly. Download the latest one from Ubuntu website.

I personally recommend Kubuntu with the KDE4 desktop - it's much more familiar to old windows users.

'sudo apt-get update'? Does this get typed in a command prompt or something? Sorry, I've never so much as seen Ubuntu being used, so I'm going to be asking stupid questions
And I really don't want a Windows look alike if I install a new OS.

[Sandman]

In your applications, is a program called "Terminal".

[Motherland]

In your applications, is a program called "Terminal".

Thanks!
A lot of the help pages telling me to input things make a lot more sense now