I keep reading all kinds of stuff about Ubuntu Linux and how wonderfully great it is.  I've looked into it a few times, and I've even downloaded it and burned it on a CD.  But the more I learn about what's involved in the installation process (or the more I don't understand about it), the more I put it off.  I keep reading something about disk partitioning and reformatting, and I'm not completely comfortable with doing this to my computer.  All the websites I've read have said that it's no big deal, and all I have to do is "back up all my important data and have a fresh Windows install".  That's not as easy as it sounds.  Or, rather, it's not as simple as it sounds.  I have Windows configured exactly how I like it, and I have certain programs and certain settings that would take weeks to transfer to a new install. 

Enter VMware.  VMware is a program that runs virtual machines, which enable you to run an operating system within an operating system.  I tried it once in the past with some sort of Linux-on-a-stick or something like it, but I wasn't all that pleased with the size or speed of the whole process.  But then I found a downloadable Ubuntu Virtual Appliance, which seemed to make it pretty easy to try out Ubuntu without actually installing the operating system.  The download comes with version 5.10 (Breezy Badger), so it's slightly outdated.  But I quickly found that Linux likes to update itself, so I let it do its thing.  I just clicked on the little popup in the upper right corner that said something about updates, and everything downloaded and installed.  It found a network connection right away, and I didn't have to tweak anything.  One annoying thing is that it kept asking for a password to do things, but the password "ubuntu" seemed to work for everything. 

So the next step was to try the latest version of Ubuntu, which is version 6.06 (Dapper Drake).  The thing with Linux is that there's a steep learning curve, and no tutorial starts from the very beginning.  So here's a mini tutorial from my experience:  I clicked on Applications and selected Accessories -> Terminal.  I typed gksudo "update-manager -d" and pressed enter.  (This link shows a screenshot of this, but the text says "gksu" instead of "gksudo".  I have no idea what either of these things mean, but I do know that "gksu" didn't work for me.)  So then it went through some steps of downloading, installing, and cleaning up, and told me to restart.  There was one error in the middle of the installation, but I just clicked on "OK" (or "Oh Well").  After restarting the system, the username and password are both "ubuntu".  One thing that didn't work after the upgrade was the network connection.  So I clicked on System and selected Administration -> Networking.  I clicked on Properties for the Ethernet Connection and enabled the connection.  I changed the Configuration option to DHCP (don't know what that means) and clicked OK.  Then I clicked on the Activate button and loaded Firefox (blue globe icon near upper left corner) to make sure everything worked.  And it worked.  So now I'm running Ubuntu Dapper Drake from within Windows XP by using VMware.  And it didn't change my installation of Windows at all.  Not bad. #technology