In addition to here there are some absolutely fabulous forums dedicated to ubuntu and you can do searches there and find pretty much all the answers to your questions because someone else already asked it. Ubuntu Forums and on there they have an area called Absolute beginner talk good place to start. You should have firefox on ubuntu if not you can easily get it and pretty much anything you need from the repositories. Repositories this site right here is awesome they tell you some of the programs you will want to get from the repositories and why, now this one happens to be for one of the older versions of ubuntu, there may be an updated one if you want to search around there but most of the stuff will be similar. The Perfect Desktop - Ubuntu Just skip over the install part and go to the rest. I think you will find your answers on how to set up the font sizes and all those kinds of setting preferences should be I think under system, preferences, appearance. Honestly I do not use Gnome so you are kind of on your own since you are using it. NOW LET ME EMPHASIZE THIS write down all your passwords and user names, especially the one you will need to access synaptic and Root, this should NOT be the same as the one you set up to get into your ubuntu log in screen. If you lose these you are really in trouble. As to your mouse that sounds like it is a special function of your particular mouse you might go into where the mouse options are and see if you can enter or find your actual mouse brand and model listed and select it and you may get those functions to work. I really suggest you use firefox as your browser, what are you using on it now? WebBrowsers Ubuntu Video Tutorials For People Just Starting Out Windows to Linux: A Beginner's Guide Linux is Not Windows The table of equivalents kind of old but can help you to figure out what program you need in linux to do what some program was doing in windows. There is some good reading for you, I was given those links when I first started linux by my guru and I always pass them on to new users. Jump in with both feet! there are several of us here that use linux so feel free to ask in general. In fact some that use ubuntu will be able to help you more than I can since I have not used it or Gnome in ages. But if you are serious about it I really do recommend that book I mentioned

you are very welcome Pam glad that helped. One thing your husband may want to try, this is what I do and like it, I create folders on the bar directly above the tabs which is the bookmarks toolbar, in those folders I put say my daily faves the ones I go to first every day, then all I have to do is right click that folder and hit open all in tabs and voila there they all are. I do a folder for my emails too since I have a few and can open all them at once the same way. I love the bookmarks tool bar, if you choose not to put them in folders you can simply drag any website you are currently on to the bookmarks tool bar by grabbing it's icon in the url bar and just drag it to that toolbar and it will stick, to change the name right click on the icon choose properties and you can make changes. to create the folder on the bar right click a clear space click new folder the box comes up to name it, then to put your faves in there just go to the website and drag it in or right click on the folder and select add bookmark here.

Many readers here have limited experience and limited knowledge. I believe responses from the more knowledgeable people should avoid strong, unfounded biases. There's no place for doing that with a beginner level audience, they (like you) may not have the time, interest, or ability to reach their own conclusions. I don't make it a point to find issues to quibble about, but it does seem you don't like it when people don't share your opinions. I try to present balanced views, keeping in mind that some people may know nothing more than what they've read in this forum. MS Internet Explorer is reported to be the most widely used browser in governmental and business use. They take that responsibility seriously, because an awful lot of essential stuff relies on it. To suggest that some grandma somewhere should worry about using the latest update to play tic-tac-toe is simply silly. And no, I don't have to have the last word.

Hey, I'm back! I did what you suggested Owbist, took the side off and dusted real good. Put it back together, turned if on and to my surprize I even got the welcoming sound. I may not have had my seaker on the other day. I got the HP splash the Windows thing and this time I even saw the log in screen and then nothing. So on just a hunch, I disconnected my monitor and plugged in my number 2 monitor and voila....it works. So my ViewSonic must have pooped out on me. Why would it only show the few screens? Is there any way to repair it? It is a really nice 17 inch. If I need to start shopping does anyone have any recommendations? Circuit City, Buy.com??? What kind? I really wish I could get this one fixed though if possible. This number 2 screen is an old fat Dell of my hubby's. I use it on the second PC for the grandkids.