The install directory should be //home/ed/.wine/dosdevices/c: so do
you see that one ?

The .wine directory does appear under my home
directory, but that still leaves me with two problems.

1. When I go to the application launcher and click on "Browse C: drive", I get
an error message stating that something (wine?, or the system?) was unable to
run the command specified because the folder
"file://home/ed/Documents/.wine/dosdevices/c: does not exist". This is a minor
issue and it appears whether I am running wine1.2 or wine1.3.

2. More seriously, I can't install the latest version of Evernotes. When I
click on the install file, I get a few hard drive accesses, and then it returns
without doing anything. PROBLEM "SOLVED": I grabbed the install file from the
Evernote version running on my desktop under Karmic, and it appears to have
installed and synched.

I have Wine working perfectly in Kubuntu 11.04. It should not matter whether
it is Kubuntu or Ubuntu. They use the same repositories and the application
is installed to the same root directory and the .wine subdirectories are the
same.

I would remove and re-install. It should not affect the contents of your
.wine folder. To browse it go to Dolphin and press Alt+. It is a toggle to
reveal hidden directories. Then navigate to .wine. The default location for
.wine is in your /home/ed directory NOT Documents. That could be the source
of the problem.

Apologies for the long delay in replying - I'm afraid I had to download
/ install Kubuntu (in a Vbox - not particularly fast :-) ) to check this.

Entering the following two commands in a terminal worked fine for me

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa
sudo apt-get install wine1.3

winecfg ran OK and created the expected ~/.wine directory structure.

I wouldn't recommend installing wine1.2 (unless you have a specific need
for that version, in which case you don't need the first command above
as it's in the universe repository) as it is now rather old and receives
little, if any, attention. The 1.3 branch has moved much farther
forward and has fixed a very large number of bugs that are still in the
1.2 branch.

According to WinHQ the 1.3 release is still in beta - fine if you
understand that some things that worked in the 1.2 stable might not
work ( or work differently ) in 1.3 beta

Yes, the terminology is confusing, isn't it :-)

There will *never* be a stable 1.3 release - it's the development
branch. OTOH, the 'stable' 1.2 branch will *never* be updated with the
bugfixes and improved functionality from the 1.3 branch.

Development on wine is progressing at a pretty quick pace (a new point
release, on average, every ten days to two weeks) and so it rapidly left
the 1.2 branch behind. Which is why running 1.3 is the recommended
option and, should you report a problem with 1.2 on any of the wine
forums, the first thing you'll be told to do is upgrade to the latest
1.3 release and see if that cures your problem.

Gotcha on that - the next stable release would be 1.4 :-)

I'm planning on a major system upgrade and re-install so will try Wine
1.3 and see how it performs.

BTW - yes I know I can just plug this HD into the new hardware but
it's been messed about with and I fancy a clean install again, not as
if it's a long job even getting all the programs installed again, not
like the "update a bit and re-boot" hell I had to go through with a
Vista install ... and yes that system is now imaged so it won't be the
same trial if needed again in the future

Yes, I have already encountered this. When attempting the command
line installation of Wine 1.3 on to Kubuntu, I received umpteen pages
of reply, notes and comments, with the final line implying that not
everything was available for 1.3 and I should be using 1.2 meantime.