Getting oriented with Ubuntu (for Windows users)

Okay, just for the record here, I'm also a beginner, just-migrated-from-Windows kinda person. But still I think I should share some of my own thoughts and experience about Ubuntu - from a newbie's perspective.

Installation
First things first: Ubuntu installation. This is the easiest part actually: just follow the instructions. One of the things that was unclear for me (and just to make sure I didn't make any mistakes as a newbie) was the Linux partitioning process. You see, a Windows-adapted user would think that one partition is enough (and I thought NTFS was good enough), but it's not!

(For a detailed review of Ubuntu partitioning, just go to this neat article.) Ubuntu needs a minimum of 2 partitions (1 would still work, but not recommended).

• One is the "/" partition, which is the root of the folder tree system. (Kinda like your ordinary "C:" drive, but not exactly the same.) This one should be moderately small, >5GB minimum, I think. (This drive is a must.)
• The other is the swap drive, which is basically a partition used specifically as a swap memory (i.e. a "page file" as Windows calls it). This one is somewhat small, ~2GB maybe. (I chose 5GB, just in case I needed more.)
• You can create an additional "/home" drive to store all your data files. If you choose to do so, just fill the remainder of your free space for this drive. (I did so myself.) The fact that the "/home" directory looks as if it's a subdirectory of the "/" root directory doesn't matter, since physically they are separate partitions.

After you understand things become easy. You can make the swap drive and "/home" drive as "logical drives" instead of "primary", if you want.

You might wonder if Ubuntu would support all your drivers. In my situation, things went fairly smoothly (referring to drivers). The only thing I had to do was to force the nVidia driver, which wasn't open-source, to be enabled (it's under System > Administration > Hardware Drivers). While it's true some things won't work here, like the QuickPlay buttons (rejoyce! that pesky QuickPlay won't work in Ubuntu!), or the Fingerprint Sensor (frankly, it started out useful, then became really annoying, because my arm sometimes touches it while typing, and hence activating the sensor unintentionally). Everything else seems to work: 3D acceleration, touchpad, mute and volume keys... Strangely easy.

Getting used to the interface
This part requires lot's and lot's of practice. Just to get people understand the basic interface, I'll explain this briefly. Note that "GNOME" is a word used to describe the kind of graphics Linux provides. Aside from the colorful GNOME interface, there's also what is called "KDE", although I've never seen that before (or I've seen it somewhere but didn't know).

The "bar" on top is the place where you:

• Applications: load a program (or game, utility, accessory).
• Places: open the File Browser to view files and folders/directories. (This is equivalent to opening the Explorer in Windows.) It also has some Networking stuff in there too.
• System: manage settings and configuration stuff (i.e. "Control Panel" in the form of a menu). Most of them are fairly straightforward and user-friendly.
• There should be some icons right after the three menu items, and you can drag and place your favorite icons here (kinda like a "Quick Launch").
• On the far right, there's a panel that looks like the Windows "Notification Area". It has the clock and some miscellaneous icons.

Okay, then there's the bottom "bar", which is a bit like the "Taskbar". This "panel", as it is technically called, allows you to see all the currently loaded programs (within the same workspace, which I'll explain next). Also, you are allowed to divide your desktop into several workspaces (default is 2, one left and one right, I think). The workspaces are just to help organize stuff. The tiny workspace icon on the far right (but to the left of the Trash, i.e. "Recycle Bin") allows you to preview with a tiny thumbnail-like icon. You can switch between workspaces by using Ctrl+Alt+Left, Right, Up or Down (assuming you never modified the default keyboard shortcuts), or by focusing the desktop and scroll your mouse wheel.

Okay, aside from the interface difference, I think the rest of the interface are fairly easy to understand, like the windows etc.

Installing programs
This is going to be an essential, yet simple skill. It's not like Windows where you buy a disc or download a binary EXE installer file to install applications. All you need to know is that nearly all of the designed-for-Linux programs (free, open-source ones, of course) can be installed by simply visiting System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager.

I think this program is specially designed for beginnerz who don't know a thing about the Linux file system or the command line (Terminal). So let's see how this thing works. First load it, then you'll see a list of weird-looking names. Those are the programs. Suppose you want to install Blender, then you just search for "blender", place a check-mark on the "blender" program that you found, and click "Apply" to install it. Note that you can't run all these 3 programs at the same time without having them conflicting:

• Update Manager 
• Synaptic Package Manager
• Add/Remove... (which is an even more beginner version of the Synaptic Package Manager, for installing or removing programs).

If you ever see something like:

sudo apt-get install [some-program-name]

then you should know that you are installing a package from the command line.
(Note: sudo is a command that gives you "root" permission [i.e. "Admininistrator" permissions])

There are slightly more complex ways of installing programs that you'll eventually have to learn, but don't be overwhelmed. The easiest way to solve them is to look for answers on the Web.

Using Ubuntu
I'd say the Ubuntu interface is really intuitive, so I don't think there would be too much trouble doing stuff. You might have to wander a little on the first few days, since you probably don't know where things are, but over time you would get used to things. There's the same windows control and similar keyboard shortcuts (mostly), so I think the transition would be smooth.

Just a reminder, Ubuntu's "Explorer" equivalent is called Nautilus (file system browser) and you should be able to access it simply from the Places menu (just click one of those items). The equivalent "Internet Explorer" is simply Mozilla Firefox.

Whining for wine
Ignoring the pun in the title, you should probably be aware of a program called Wine, since it can allow many kinds of Windows programs to run on Linux. While I don't think it's perfect, it's worth a shot if you really want an important Windows program to run on your Ubuntu. In most cases, however, you should settle for a free, open-source version of a program rather than to force a Windows program to run on Ubuntu, if possible.