Hopefully, you came across the mention that you also need the version of
Vbox directly from sun/oracle (or whatever company that makes it.. my
memory sucks these days...). The one in ubuntus repositories is not able
to have USB capabilities due to licensing restrictions... you still will
need the guest addidions and to have yourself in the vbox group. After
setup, though, it is as simple as plug and play.

I used the oracle version. I still need some tweaking and hope to resolve a few
issues today.

Understand what you mean about VBox and the extensions, but to be fair
it's not an Ubuntu issue as the same applies to VBox on any platform
and it's VBox who chose to do it that way. Used to be there was a
different set of guest additions per platform but they've all be
rolled into one common installer. Maybe future editions of VBox will
do away with this, only time will tell but it's VBox's call on that.

However, once you have the extensions installed then it does help with
the running - been a VBox user for some time now :-)

Accessing USB devices using VBox and WinXP is a two step process, plug
into the PC and Ubuntu will read it by default and to get it to read
in WinXP look at the bottom right of the screen and Right Click on the
USB icon then click on the USB device you want to use - this will make
it visible to WinXP and is effectively the 'plug in' step to it. When
finished, use "safely remove hardware" in WinXP as normal then Right
Click on the USB icon as above and click on the device. This is the
same as unplugging from WinXP and releases it back to Ubuntu. It may
sound complicated when written like this but it's actually very quick
and simple to do.

Accessing Ubuntu folders in WinXP is by using 'Shared Folders' in the
WinXP settings in VBox. Once a folder is shared that way you can then
use WinXP's 'Map Network Drive' to create a link to it and assign a
drive letter. The shared folder appears under 'Virtual Box Shared
Folders' when mapping. It's possible to share Ubuntu's 'Documents'
folder then change the path of 'My Documents' in WinXP to this to have
the two permanently linked - i.e. items put into 'Documents' in Ubuntu
appear in WinXP's 'My Documents' and vice-versa.

Not all users will end up running Virtual Box and WinXP, they'll just
use Ubuntu and in that respect it's as easy to use as Windows IMHO and
in some ways easier. Installing programs from CD is the WinXP way,
Ubuntu does not do this and isn't set up for it - installation is by
download and in this case a .deb file auto-runs the installer without
any need to consider permissions, and of course the Ubuntu Software
Centre makes the process even easier

PS - you have remembered to add your user to VBox Users ? That's
essential to get sharing and USB access working and again may well be
automated at some point. I found that I got an error saying that USB
devices cannot be accessed until this was done even after I'd done it
and USB was working fine, just tick the box to not warn of this again.

Today I installed VBox extensions and added myself to vboxusers. I can now
access my USB devices but I have to say using the command line to add users is
not very intuitive. I could not find a graphical interface like windows to do
the same task.

I also installed Synaptic and allowed rollback to the classic desktop. The new
desktop I am having trouble getting comfortable with.

I shared all the folders I want to mount in XP under VBox but when I right click
on the share icon on the lower right of VBox it tells me I need to "Install
Guest Additions from the Devices menu", I am lost I cannot find it???

You do not have to use the commandline to add yourself to the vboxusers
group. There is a graphical tool in the system or administration area of
Ubuntu called Users and Groups. You need to do this as root so will have
unlock it with your password. I am not in Ubuntu or I could be more
specific, but its exact name and location will vary with which version of
Ubuntu and which desktop, GNOME or Unity.

To add users go to [ System / Administration / Users and Groups ], or
in Unity [ Dash / Users ].

To manage groups go to [ System / Administration / Users and Groups ]
but in Unity it looks like it's command line only. Notice you've got
the classic shell running in 11.10 so do the paths above work ?

If you are getting the 'Install Guest Additions' message when trying
to use Shared Folders then go to [ Devices / Install Guest Additions ]
and see if that helps. Not sure if it's a VBox us 11.10 quirk so
having a bash at installing it in 11.10 running in VBox - will be an
interesting exercise if nothing else

Well VBox 4.1 is installed, added user to vboxusers, installed WinXP
fine and after going to [ Devices / Install Guest Additions ] access to
shared folders was there - no need to install VBox extras in fact.

Personally I'm looking forward to 12.04LTS and hope that the lack of
usability in Unity for advances users is dealt with. Agree it's too
simplified for the serious user, but fine for the casual one. In the
meantime, using 10.04LTS for all my daily computer work.

PS - does installing WinXP in Virtual Box that is installed in Ubuntu
11.10 running in Virtual Box that's installed in Ubuntu 10.04LTS count
as 'serious geek'

In Ubuntu 11.10, User and Groups is included in gnome-system-tools, which is not
installed by default.

Thanks - had to be a way to do it in a GUI somewhere

I now have evrything installed and running correctly. VBox has all the sharing
and usb divices working. What I really need is a bigger display so I can set my
XP resolution to 1024.

Now back to an ongoing Ubuntu issue with my dispalys. Under XP and Windows 7 I
have two screens set to extended. This is nice when you need more desktop space.
Under Ubuntu it will only allow mirror mode which I have found useless on the
desktop.

This average user agrees with you.

I draw the line at the command prompt. If a fix or function requires the user
to type gibberish at a command prompt, in my opinion the developer has failed. A
user shouldn't have to read a seventy page man page, spend hours scouring the
internet forums for fixes and waste non-value added time to repair or enable
basic functions and services in a gui-based OS. Not saying there shouldn't be a
command prompt but you'd think at this stage in the game making command line
tweaks to the OS would be the exception rather than the rule. It's probably
been 10 years or more since I've had to do that in windoze.

This revolving door of six month restarts, enhancements causing more problems
than they fix, basic things broken, and obtuse user intervention may be fun for
some people, but my goal is to get work done on the computer, not just work on
the computer. Sometimes you just want to have a data appliance. Few users care
what's behind the curtain - it's all about the applications. Ubuntu has been
the closest thing to that for me on the Linux side, but it's still not quite
there yet. Not expecting perfection, but once it reaches the usablility of my
windoze 2K box, I'd be happy enough.

That's how I've found Ubuntu to be in the main, and I've several users
who also have no need to ever see the command line in everyday use. So
in that respect Ubuntu has succeeded IMHO :-) Command line is still
there for the advanced user and even Windows can still need this for
fixing it when it goes awry so no real difference there either.

I suspect that the main difference is that Ubuntu isn't afraid of the
command line when it makes sense to use it over a GUI whereas Windows
does everything it can to try and avoid command line ( not always in a
successful way ). So Windows users migrating to Ubuntu can find that
they are directed to command line more readily when the GUI method is
either not implemented or not flexible enough - when all is said and
done Ubuntu is *not* Windows and never will be, but herein lies its
strength, not weakness.

Again, for most users they'll never have the need to know there is a
command line at all :-)

Perhaps we cannot take the experiences of the forum regarding command
line as an indicator to it overall - by definition, it will mainly be
those have issues with Ubuntu that join and those using it without any
problem won't be looking for help ? So command line is bound to be
more prevalent in these pages ?

MB> Not saying there shouldn't be a command prompt but you'd think at
MB> this stage in the game making command line tweaks to the OS would
MB> be the exception rather than the rule.

There's one case where the command prompt is terribly useful. You say you have a
problem, and I can tell you how to fix it. I have two methods: I can say, "start
this program, select this tab, click here, click there, then click this other
place." In my experience, half the time, the user can't find the tab I'm talking
about.

The other option is, "paste this command into a terminal and run it." There's no
chance you can get it wrong, unless you don't know how to copy/paste. And it's
about 10 times as fast.

As far as I am concerned Linux IS easy and familiar (to me).
Because I did make an effort to learn over time , including use of the
command line.
Sadly ,it appears that some/many people are not prepared to learn something
new, whereas on the other hand many other people have embraced new
technology through learning.
I feel that in the end it boils down to a person's attitude towards
" learning" which always requires effort.

I can't argue with that and I work at understanding but that does not change the
fact the average user is not going to take the time. I worked at a university
with 35K students. The college I worked for as an IT manager had 16K students
and 800 staff and faculty. I have seen what the average student and faculty will
do and if it is at all confusing they will not do it. In order for the windows
community to change it will have to be somewhat intuitive, at least from their
point of view, in order to change.

As for me I will continue to work at making Ubuntu my standard operating system.

It is not intuitive to have pop-ups use double negatives, as Windows
programs do when installed. I believe the idea is to "confuse and get
more spy-ware installed per user" The users seem to have no time to be
sure of what they are installing. My latest Ubuntu victim chose Ubuntu
over Windows, only after a run in with his bank. Seems that when his
computer slowed down, his bank balance went down as well, go figure!

When teacher/professors push Windows products as they do, most sheeple
just follow the lead, thinking the leaders know what they are talking
about. In reality the leaders are bought off by Microsoft, with free
computers, and free upgrades on MS software. It is just to bad they
don't understand freedom.

Maybe now that Unity is out with an interface that is very similar to
the tablets people are using, they will know a true leader.

What the community needs are free CDs that show some how-tos to
distribute with the latest release to help with the transition.

I've come to find Kubuntu (and other distros) very comfortable and easy to
use but it did take years. The process didn't even start until after my
retirement from network administration, which says something in itself. I
always advised my students to "stick with the big player" because that was
where the jobs were.

A very recent example: the XP that my netbook came with got messed up so I
decided to restore it using the provided disk. When it came to WiFi it just
wouldn't work - because I had replaced the original card with one that did
work in Ubuntu years ago. I could have looked up the drivers and got it
going but didn't think I would need WiFi in this very minor part of my
computer inventory. With almost any Linux distro the driver would have been
there right in the kernel. It was a surprising, and frustrating,
experience. I guess Linux has spoiled me forever.

I went ahead and installed Linux Mint as a dual boot and of course it was
much less trouble and everything "just worked".