[Lilug] Ubuntu Install - Any gotchas?

[Rob Wilkens]

Hi All,

I've been away from LILUG for a while, and even when I was here I'm
usually away in a sense too.

Main reason has been I got into some financial trouble and in the
process destroyed a good amount of my own computer hardware.  It's
only recently that I have a working computer with enough disk space
again to run Linux.

I now have a terabyte to play with (the drives are dirt cheap
nowadays, I guess), and am getting ready to install ubuntu 8.10.

I gathered from the recent mailing list archives that ubuntu is what
many people are still running, so I thought it made sense to start
there.

I am not loooking to do any 'serious computing' and I don't play video
games (usually), I'm just looking for a system to mess around with and
maybe learn a thing or two in case I ever want to be employable again.
 Most of my computer activity involves either browsing web pages (like
biggestloserclub.com, which I've used to lose about 40 pounds), or
exchanging e-mail with friends or family.

Reason I'm writing is to find out if there are any gotchas with
installing ubuntu (on a desktop computer), or if things are relatively
smooth with the more recent installs.  I remember having video card
trouble with it in the past, though I don't even know what kind of
video card I have now without looking at device manager.  I had
network problems with ubuntu in the past too, but I don't remember if
that was just the wifi or wired.

Rob