You said you are running Ubuntu 8.04. That is LINUX, not Windows.

Hence, quit trying to run WINDOWS Live. If Hotmail is now demanding
that of their users, you better just get you a gmail.com account.

Do a Help...About and you'll see you are using Mozilla Firefox.

We need more information as lots of things could be possible. Is this your first
use of Linux? Is this a change or something new, ie. it was working but isn't
now? Has it happened before? What is your hardware, especially video adapter?
What is your setup of Ubuntu, ie. are you running Compiz or anything that might
affect video? What have you done to try to resolve the issue? Can you open a
terminal or Synaptic?

this is not my first time running Ubuntu. i have previously installed
and run Xubuntu in my 450MHz PII for more than a year now and never
had this problem. on the Xubuntu, i see the applications (and have
used the synaptic to install other programs)and the mozilla browser.
hence, i was surprised with this install of Ubuntu 8.04. note that
this is the same computer dual booting with Windows Vista that i need
to redo the boot loader. i am going to get this done when i go back
to dubai and again do the reinstall of the Ubuntu 8.04 on the 16GB
USB.

speaking of the USB install, can you please provide the safe way or
methods to do the install with the boot loader located in the hdd and
not in the USB drive.

On the last stage of the installation where all of the changes are listed, just
before the actual installation begins there is a button on the bottom right that
says Advanced. Click it and choose the place where you want the bootloader
written to. Otherwise it will write it to hda or sda. You need to know the
device name that you want to write it to. You can also change boot parameters
etc. here.