Newb in need of references

[Amatsu_Mikabushi]

Well, as I have said in earlier posts, I am still a newb in this field. I recently got my hands on a Gentoo machine, but the actual owner has it set up as an email machine, and doesn't want me actually altering anything, so it's pretty darn hard to learn. I have an 80gb unpartitioned drive in my pc right now that I'm using for storage, and I'd like to put Ubuntu on it, so I can have a Linux OS that if I screw it up I can reformat and start again. Any information on where to go to acquire Ubuntu safely, and references on how to use it would be great. I want to get to the point with Linux that I am with Windows (not just end user level), so I need to not only know the basics, but I also want to be able to trouble shoot most potential problems, and make it work to fit my needs. so if anyone knows of good teaching tools from newb to advanced lvls, I could sure use them. thanks for the assist!

[oz]

Any information on where to go to acquire Ubuntu safely, and references on how to use it would be great. I want to get to the point with Linux that I am with Windows (not just end user level), so I need to not only know the basics, but I also want to be able to trouble shoot most potential problems, and make it work to fit my needs. so if anyone knows of good teaching tools from newb to advanced lvls, I could sure use them.

Welcome to the forums!

The best place to obtain Ubuntu is directly from their downloads page:

Download Ubuntu | Ubuntu

The best way to learn it is to install it, use it, and experiment with it.

Hope it all goes well for you.