can i use ubuntu linux as my only operating system

YES.

1) If you have data to recover, plug a USB disk and boot on a Ubuntu Live CD (the Ubuntu CD, but choose "Try Ubuntu without installation" at start). The Live session should mount your Vista hard disk, allowing you to copy from NTFS partition (Vista) to external hard drive.

2) After saving of data, reboot and choose installation of Ubuntu. The five first minutes, you have a few question to answer (language, keyboard, time, ...). For partitioning, choose default "Use whole disk".

The single true problem of Ubuntu is the lack of games.

Hello,

Yes, you can can either install Ubuntu as your main Operating System or beside an other Operating System.
What do you want?

thanks for the help,i very much i doubt i will be able to recover vista due to fact my previous harddrive broke and its being replaced with a new one,so i doubt vista will get recovered now.

I have been interested in Linux for a while as i have heard its very very secure compared to windows vista well actually any windows lol.

My brother told me that ubuntu is the easest linux to use compared to the rest and looks easy.

So realy if i could just have ubuntu linux that would be great,its not to hard to install 3 usb dongle is it as well?
is it fairly easy?

so i am downloading the iso cd is this cd i need to do a install?

If your hard disk is physically broken, no hope. If it is a problem a filesystem, I don't know.

If you wait the first June, you will start directly with Ubuntu 10.4, and you will avoid the upgrade of 9.10 to 10.4 (Karmic Koala to Lenny).

If you want to install now (upgrade is not so awfull, specially if you don't have data to save), you simply have to put the burned CD-ROM in the laptop and reboot. Be carefull, because you must burn an ISO image, and not a folder. You have to use a option of you burning software.

Preparation of installation take 5 minutes, and automatic installation around one hour.

The best is a wired Ethernet connection to ADSL Box, to download new packages. The bad news is, as 9.10 was build in october 2009, you will have 5 months of update to download, which takes some times. As this download occurs after reboot following installation from disk, you will have a second hour of installation (actual duration depends of PC and Ethernet connection).

If you do not want to waste a cd, and make the installation faster you could make a LiveUSB instead of a LiveCD. You'll need an empty USB drive, which has a minimum of 1GB of memory. So every USB stick which has 1GB or more will work.
And your BIOS must support this; this is a tricky part. It probably supports it, as most of them do. You should be able to go to Settings or Setup somewhere, by pressing DEL or one of the F1-F12 buttons. Then somewhere you should be able to select the boot order, and you should put the USB drive on top. Some BIOSes support one button to be able to select the boot device. It all depends on your bios.

Now how to create such a LiveUSB:
You'll need 'UNetBootin' for such things, it's a very basic program with which you can make a bootable USB. http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
Download this; install it and then click the round 'Diskimage' button (the radio button).
Plug in the USB drive you want to make bootable
Start UNetBootin.
Then click the button next to the white space with the '...' text on it. (the three dots).
Then look at the bottom of the screen, you'll find that you can select a USB drive. Of course, you should have a USB inserted in your computer to select it. MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE YOU SELECTED THE CORRECT USB DEVICE! And make sure that there's no data you want to keep, so backup the data you don't want to lose before going any further.
Press OK to proceed installing.

Note that while installing, it might seem to freeze at a moment. Just let it continue, there's nothing to worry about. It will go on if you wait long enough. This is usually at the beginning of the 'burning'.

Now to boot from the USB device, you should go into the BIOS as I described before.

LiveUSB has the advantage of being a lot faster then LiveCD's. But it can be a bit complicated to make them, and to boot from them. And in the end, there's not really any difference.

Thanks for the help,i dont have a usb drive.
I just put it on a cd.
yes the Bios,yeah you can boot order.

I aint got my toshiba laptop back yet,soon as i get it back,i will put ubuntu linux onit.

delance so the new version comes out in june,i seen it on some news sites that it comes out october.

thanks everybody for all the help

Well, actually the new version comes out on April 29.
There's a beta version which you could test, but I do not recommend you to use it as a new user. Some programs do not work the way it should work.

So, basically April 29 is the day :)

I would like to wish you a lot of fun and all with Ubuntu. I hope you won't return to Windows, and hope you'll tell your friends about Ubuntu too :) About that, do not try and rave about the good stuff about Ubuntu. The best thing, is just to mention something about not having viruses on Ubuntu when the conversation is about viruses. Or just allow them on your laptop/computer if they as you to, and let them see that your computer behaves differently. They'll ask you about it.
So the important thing is: it should be their question you are answering. Do not answer any unasked questions! Most of the people do not care about operating systems, and the only time they do care, is when they ask you for information about Ubuntu.
Of course; this only counts if you like Ubuntu (which I'm quite sure you will :P )

Happy Ubuntuing :)

"Or just allow them on your laptop/computer if they as you to," should be
"Or just allow them on your laptop/computer if they ask you, "

I can't find any edit button near my message.

ah 29th april i may be able to hold on to then it depends when i get my laptop back realy as iam dieing to try ubuntu and play with it.

also about the fact that virus,s are very rare as long as u keep update to date and be a sensible user am i correct?
do u need any extra firewalls for ubuntu?
cos i hear linux is kinda un hackable compared to windows.

I hope i like it,i hate windows vista lol windows in general,the main reason of moving to ubuntu is the fact my harddrive broke and i dont have os now,so i have the chance to try ubuntu linux out.

i had many many problems with vista pissed me off lol i am on vista now on my partners laptop.

I will spread the word if i like but my friends are not very good at computers they struggle with windows updates etc lol.

You will not need an anti-virus program at the moment. If Linux get used more, we might get a little more viruses. I don't think there would be so many viruses though. Linux is pretty secure at it's core. Much more secure then Windows is at it's core.
I recommend you to install the updates when possible, of course, as you should with Windows. But the security leaks in Ubuntu are far less exploited by hackers and viruses, so there's not really a necessity.
If I'm not mistaken, there's a build in firewall in Ubuntu, which is activated by default. But it is not configurable, since it will configure itself. I don't think it's a very good firewall compared to the ones you might find in Windows, but to be honest, I don't think a firewall is needed. If you do want to be extra safe, and want to configure the firewall, there are ways of configuring it. If you want to change the settings of the firewall, type in 'firewall' in the Ubuntu Software Center, and look for the firewall GUI that suits you most.
And there's an anti virus program called ClamAV which you might want to install if you want to be extremely safe. It is not necessarily though. Most anti virus programs for Linux are used on Linux servers, to keep viruses from entering Windows machines. And viruses are not only rare, they are non-existent at the moment. And if there's any one virus at any one time, there would be a fix very soon compared to Windows.

I face the same problem with some people. They struggle with Windows, and are too stubborn to try anything different because they think it's complicated. They know Windows, therefore they chose Windows, not knowing there's something much more simple.

One piece of advise; do not give up if anything fails. There are answers to any question.

I'd be happy to answer any following questions about Ubuntu :) But I think it's not allowed to continue this chat here. Your question is answered, therefore you should mark this question solved. I hope to answer your questions elsewhere.

Hmm, I do not know the difference between 'solved' and 'answered' in the context of Launchpad. At second thought; I think 'answered' is correct, not 'solved'.

thanks for all your help,i wont reply again as u say might be against this board rules to.