I need to install windows xp home edition to make my sprintair card work

Or you can provide more info so that someone can help you. You will not get support for a Windows OS here. What is your current OS? Hardy Heron? If so:
Press Alt F2 and write in gnome-terminal.
Write then in "lsusb" without quotes when you have the sprintair card connected.
Post the output here.

Yup, people in here might be able to help get your card working in Ubuntu if you can give more detail. Another way to get to a command-line is to go up to the top taskbar and click on

Applications - Accessories - Terminal

but there are other ways too, it's just that this is my favourite one ;) Once you've got a terminal/command window/console open the type (or mouse paste in

lsusb

and see if there's something different when you do have the card plugged in compared with when you don't have it plugged in.

I thought you'd also like a look-up guide to help in your transition from Windows
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwitchingToUbuntu/FromWindows

Note that often people only bother to mention about supporting Windows because linux is still quite relatively unknown and still considered a bit geeky. Many tech-support companies have found that advertising themselves as being able to support linux scares potential clients away so they just miss off the fact that they are probably pretty good with it and find it easier to help with. It's often worth asking. This will probably change but perhaps not soon. The linux desktop market is the fastest growing sector in IT markets today but it's go a long way to go, people are only just aware that it dominates Servers and hand-helds but don't often don't yet consider it in microsquish's home-ground.

Installing Windows is a bit of a nightmare, especially trying to make it legitimate. Even getting hold of an installer cd is tough but when you do have one and have a product-key you can use then it's probably worth installing both as a dual-boot
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot
for a couple of things and inside a virtual machine inside Ubuntu using VirtualBox for a couple of things.
http://www.virtualbox.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VirtualBox
as the same product-key should be able to be used for both as it's just a re-install to the same physical machine. If you have t phone up to activate your Windows install then don't confuse them by talking about virtual machines as they will be trying to find a reason to charge you for an additional copy.

Having installed Windows either or both ways you'll notice it lacks even basic applications such as an Office apps package. You can either buy Microsoft Office which will then need you to step-up your antivirus or use OpenOffice, Thunderbird and Firefox which have all been ported over to Windows :)
http://www.openoffice.org/
http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/
http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/firefox/
when you look at these sites from inside Windows they should give their Windows download buttons :) It's also worth taking note of this advice about antivirus because while linux only has about 300 known viruses the Windows world is much less safe and has an estimated 30,000 known viruses
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Antivirus

Anyway, good luck with all this
Regards from
Tom :)