I've been hearing this mentioned quite often. I did a search & found where to download it. But, call me stupid what exactly is it? Sounds like an operating system like windows xp, Vista, etc. Enlighten me!!!

thats cause it is another operating system i tried it for while it was ok nothing really to brag about though.

XP is Windows. Ubuntu is Linux. XP sucks a lot of your memory causing your computer to load up slow. Ubuntu is Linux causing your computer to load up fast. XP is user friendly and make sense if you have been using Windows in the past. Ubuntu now is user friendly. Its the same thing only different. Ubuntu is open source and free. XP costs you an arm and a leg but you can run most everything because Microsoft is just as greedy as the rest of them. Microsoft believes that pirating is wrong and that it is why only good to pirate if you are Microsoft. Ubuntu is getting a lot better and I love it.

I've never used linux is it much different other than being faster loading? thx

There are a lot of free programs that you can download after downloading a free Linux distribution of an operating system. Instead of dealing with just one major corporation you are getting free software from open source people all over the world. You can even help in the development and have a lot more choices.

http://distrowatch.com/

There are like 4000 different flavors of Linux for operating systems.

Its a good stepping point to get away from windows. Pretty much everything works in a out of the box style. Most software there are linux versions of or a replacement. Open Office instead of MS office, stuff like that. Other things theres always wine to run the windows version if you need it like photoshop.
Over all not hard to use but different from windows and may take some playing to get used to it.

Thanks, I think I may download it later. Right now my internet connection is like molassis!!

My suggestion to you is to request a "Live CD" directly from Umbuntu!
It's free

Every .ISO you download from Ubuntu can be used as a Live CD which means you just boot off DVD drive and run the OS from there. Its a great way to test the OS without needing to open up a partition for the OS. Actually typing this post in Ubuntu 10.10.

Its true you can get a free cd of Ubuntu from Canonical. I got my first Ubuntu 7.04 there in the mail.

Ubuntu is a linux based operating system. It's special in the manner it can run linux and windows based programs. It's alot more friendly user in it's operating compared to other linux's. It's not command based. You don't manually have to write it to how you wish for it to look and run like alot of linux. I currently use ubuntu myself.

With ubuntu it's a bit easier to find the software you need and cheaper. Ubuntu is a sharing operating system. For instance, say you have a copy of ubuntu and you create a copy of that CD to give to someone, sell even. You aren't in violation of copy rights or anything of such. It's call shareware I believe is the correct term.

open source - source code is available- you can prgram it urself-developers use it alot and if u don't write code it will take some getting used to but it;s pretty cool


and yes all else being equal- it's like lightening fast

rythmbox isn;t always the greatest tho

It's a Linux based Operating Sytem, better than Windows. It's awesome. If you want to try something different from Windows, it's a great start.