New to linux-No GUI shown after login

Try the boot option:

radeon.nomodeset=1

Where do I type/try/enter this?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions

This....is all very confusing. Is there a step by step guide, as that just all went straight over my head :(

Sigh....

Hold SHIFT at boot then press E to (e)dit the line, delete the words:

quiet splash

and in the same place add:

radeon.nomodeset=1

Press ENTER to continue the boot.

Hey I said I was a noob...

This does solve it, but it runs VERY slowly, but I have no more graphical glitches. However, I hit F10 as it said to (enter just moved the line down) but it hasn't remembered my changes, so I have to do it every time I boot. Is there something like a driver or patch I could install?

Its not about being new, you just have to read. Nothing more.

Get fully updated and then reboot

I tried reading it and got confused.

Get fully updated? I assumed that Wubi always grabbed the most recent version.

Do you mean to update within Ubuntu? As it said I was up to date...

I'll do some more googling, see if anyone has similar problems...

If you wait til the login screen and press CTRL+ALT+F1 and login there, then run:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install xfce4

(I assume you have web access), you can then reboot by running:

sudo reboot

And log in to the XFCE session, should give you a usable OS

Another slight problem:

For some reason, although XP recognises it fine, Ubuntu doesn't like my wi-fi card. If I do what you said above, it says err http://blahblah

Then says reading package lists: and it counts up to 100%
W: failed to fetch (insert long URL here)
(See above)
(See above)
(See above)
(Again)
(And again)

x some index files failed to download. They have been ignored or old ones will be used instead.
Building depend tree:
The following extra packages will be installed:
(Insert metric crap ton of stuff here)
Suggested packages:
(Insert half a metric crap ton of stuff here)
The following new packages will be installed:
(Lists all of the extra packages being installed from above)
0 upgraded, 37 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Nee to get 13.7 MB of archives.
After this, 57.2 mb of additional disk space will be used?
Continue [Y/N]
(Insert
A
Crap
Ton
Of
Stuff
Here
"Err
Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'
(See Above 5 times or so)
Failed to fetch (stuff)
(See above 20 times or so)
E: unable to fetch some archives, maybe run apt-get update or try with --fix-missing?

Something tells me I need to Ubuntu connected to the Internet, but how? :/

Do you have a web connection?

I haz an idea. I was reading up on the changes to Ubuntu made in 12.10, and part of it was some hefty graphics rediddling. SO, because 8 year old business laptops aren't gonna have the most up to date graphics hardware, I'm gonna reformat the partition and try the LTS instead :) thanks for all your help btw :)