Need all the help I can get.

[Jean Dewald]

On wo, 2009-02-18 at 10:59 -0800, Jeremy Tyree wrote:
>   Well,  here goes.  My plan is to erase my hard drive.  And I want to
> use Ubuntu OS.  I am sick of windows, and I want a change.  I have
> downloaded the file and I am going to burn the CD.  I am savvy with
> the computer, but I really don't know much about installing a new OS.
> My question is, if I erase the hard drive, throw the cd in, will it
> automatically setup and start installing??  Or do I need to know some
> kind of DOS commands before I get into it?  I really don't want to
> waste anyone's time, but I want to do it right.  Help me please if you
> can.    
-- 

I am not a IT professional, but just want to tell you about my own experiences, quite similar to yours.
I recently bought a Dell laptop with Vista installed.
I tried it for 3 months and then, totally disgusted, decided to switch to Ubuntu.

The most important you should do, in my opinion, is to try Ubuntu on your system before the real installation, 
which will erase your HD without any way of return!

So I suggest following steps:

1) Download a (free) Ubuntu to your CD writer.

2) From the CD you can already start your system  with the new OS, without installation
   or any change of your old configuration. 

3) Check thoroughly if all parts of your system (keyboard, monitor, HD, modem, webcam...) are correctly recognised.
        If there are some gaps, find out if you will be able to solve the problems.
        
4) Play with your new toy, just to find out if you can live with the new fonctions. You'll probably find out, 
like I did, that Ubuntu offers much more ways to do the job without the bells, strings and nice colours
of Windows. (Your system will be a little lazy, because continuously refering to the slow CD.)

If you decide to go on:

5) Make an external copy of all your documents: installation will totally erase your HD!

6) From your Ubuntu CD, choose to install the OS, which will now erase your HD and install all parts of it.

7) Copy your documents back to your HD

8) And enjoy your new freedom to choose the free applications you want!

Good luck
  

      Jean