A few noob questions

[Biggles_]

Hi, I've only just started finding out about Linux, and there's a few things I need in plain English to help me settle in!

I'm very into streamlining my Windows experience, and modifying the look and function of a lot of things, so it's strange not to know what's going on!

First off visuals, what are my options with regards to what I can do to my desktop? can I move the bars around and change their contents heavily or not?

I installed Chrome already because it's my favourite browser, and it was a direct download haha! but how do I go about installing Flash player and Java and the other add-ons required for viewing things on the net?

Is there any way to increase the size of my partition in my hard drive without re-installing?

And the most important, I have gathered Ubuntu isn't exactly plug-and-play, how do I go about obtaining drivers for my USB audio output for my speakers?

The more plain English the answers the better! I don't like feeling like a noob haha

[Kieren]

I installed Chrome already because it's my favourite browser, and it was a direct download haha! but how do I go about installing Flash player and Java and the other add-ons required for viewing things on the net?

To install most things you will want install the package ubuntu-restricted-extras. To do this from the command line you can use:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

[techieMoe]

what are my options with regards to what I can do to my desktop? can I move the bars around and change their contents heavily or not?

The graphical user interface is entirely separate from the underlying operating system in Linux, so you basically have carte blanche to do whatever you like with your desktop. Ubuntu uses the GNOME desktop by default, but you can also install KDE, Enlightenment, FVWM, Fluxbox, and any number of other graphical environments.

Of the ones listed above, Enlightenment is probably the one that's most user-configurable but all of them let you mess around with things to some degree. I'd recommend keeping backup copies of your default configuration files just in case you mess with something a little *too* much.

And the most important, I have gathered Ubuntu isn't exactly plug-and-play, how do I go about obtaining drivers for my USB audio output for my speakers?

Actually, Ubuntu is generally extremely plug-and-play. On machines I've used it on I've rarely had to find and download drivers on my own, with the exception of Nvidia or ATI 3D cards. I'm curious what kind of sound chip you have. Perhaps the drivers are already there and just need to be tweaked in some way.

[lugoteehalt]

Hi, I've only just started finding out about Linux, and there's a few things I need in plain English to help me settle in!

I'm very into streamlining my Windows experience, and modifying the look and function of a lot of things, so it's strange not to know what's going on!

First off visuals, what are my options with regards to what I can do to my desktop? can I move the bars around and change their contents heavily or not?

Yes vastly more configurable than Windows, almost irrespectively of what you are using. As party says above.

I installed Chrome already because it's my favourite browser, and it was a direct download haha! but how do I go about installing Flash player and Java and the other add-ons required for viewing things on the net?

How To Enable Adobe's Flash Player In Google Chrome (Ubuntu 9.04) | HowtoForge - Linux Howtos and Tutorials
may help - just put something like 'install flash player chrome ubuntu' into google or something. Java is usually got from sun.com.

Is there any way to increase the size of my partition in my hard drive without re-installing?

Yes, gparted for example. Be a little circumspect perhaps.

And the most important, I have gathered Ubuntu isn't exactly plug-and-play, how do I go about obtaining drivers for my USB audio output for my speakers?

See above, but if you do need them first thing obviously is to find the name of the audio 'card', look at the output of lsusb -vvv (list USB)

The more plain English the answers the better! I don't like feeling like a noob haha

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