And now I've used GParted to repartition this machine. I have Windows XP
installed on /dev/sda1 and Ubuntu on /dev/sda2. I had a little panic at
first because GParted took an awful long time to resize the XP partition.
It's all good. And I forgot to put the D-Link wireless card back in but
Ubuntu recognized the internal wireless card on this machine so it's even
better. I assumed that it wouldn't work since it hasn't in the past. Next
up, getting Flash & Java installed (if they're not already.) Exciting stuff.

Even better -

BTW flash and java, along with multimedia codecs and other goodies, are
all neatly installed when you select and apply the
"ubuntu-restricted-extras" package in synaptic.

It does not always work as well as you experienced, but more often than not
this is the case.

Spread the word! Linux relies on word of mouth rather than expensive ad
campaigns. It is ordinary users not gurus who have the most impact because
Linux has the reputation (wrongly) that it is for techies.

Yep, I've been preaching the gospel for a long time. I've got several
servers running CentOS at work and I've rolled it out for some of my 'side
job' clients. I just never got around to making my laptop dual boot since
the wireless always gave me fits and I didn't feel like messing with it.

Tried to install Freezip after accidentally trying to install Winzip but
refusing to register it. Vista will not let me unzip with Freezip now. Made me
so mad I vowed never to touch another windows crap computer unless forced to do
so.

Unfortunately my only easy access to the Internet is on an XP system. Thank God
it isn't VISTA. Can't wait until the Wifi in my apartment works again so I can
get back to Linux Ubuntu.

If you have to use a Win XP machine, give 7-Zip a try.
http://www.7-zip.org/Good program.

There is a very good zipping program, 7z http://www.7-zip.org/
I tested it under Windows 2000 and I am very enthusiastic about it but, of
course, under Linux it has no use, as Linux has its own archiving programs.
I thought Winzip or something similar was included into Windows Vista.
Something like that is certainly included into Windows XP Pro but people in
Romania prefer Winrar (a rather stupid thing). I was surprised Winrar could open
tarballs.