After installation check list for Ubuntu

Download from Synaptic package manager

Epiphany Instant Messenger

Gtk-Ch Theme - Gnome theme Changer

Awn manager and Avant

Thunderbird

10 things you need to do immediately after installation

http://www.dailygyan.com/2008/11/10-things-you-should-do-immediately.html

I only picked VLC and the win32codecs one so that my browser will stream video

Dual Boot Installation Instructions Ubuntu/Windows XP

These are my notes so next time I won't have to look stuff up

1. (Best to do a complete wipe of your drives, because your a noob)
- make sure your computer boots from the CD/DVD Drive
- Pop the latest Ubuntu disk in and restart your computer - you want the disk to bootup rather than windows
- in the system menu start the disk partitioner and remove all formatting from the drive(s)

2. pop the Windows disk in and install. (just install so it starts up - you can update drivers and stuff later)

3. pop the Ubuntu disk back in CD/DVD-ROM drive and restart. I found it worked find using the guided installation rather than trying to re-assign the /home, so keep this simple. Just let Ubuntu install it.

4. there was a window that popped up asking to access the Windows files during installation - I checked no at first and the dual bootup didnt work. I checked it and then it worked fine.

bingo it worked.