missing programs, books for beginners?

[Dan Farrell]

On Sat, 01 Aug 2009 12:18:28 -0700
Sharon Ruck <ruckster at curlewagape.com> wrote:

> Howdy!
> I'm new to Linux, my ex was the guru.  I have worked a tiny amount in 
> Unix about 10 years ago in Antarctica.  Windows xp expert (installs, 
> repairs, etc), piece of junk....

Ubuntu departs from the UNIX world in many ways; one of them is to make
lots of stuff graphical.  If you want to hang out in command line
world, may I recommend you use bash as your shell rather than that
hideous default, whatever it is, in ubuntu?  Just type 'bash' after you
bring up a cli shell.  

> when I try to use a few programs referenced to by a book I have, they are 
> not in the menus where the book states they are.

You can always try running them from the command line if you can't find
them in the menus.  I think you can find the terminal in the menus
easily enough; I recommend you then type 'bash' first off for a nice
easy terminal experience.