I played with the "live" capability for a little while and liked it, so I installed to my second hdd. Ubuntu has different ways to get to more or less the same applications that Windows has and it will certainly take some time to get familiar with where everything is, but I really like it so far.

And faster...lots faster than IE....opening web sites with Firefox is very fast, and I am doing this thru Ubuntu.

I haven't had a chance to try much else...like the cd/dvd burning program and other stuff.

If I can do the basic kinds of things with Ubuntu that I currently do thru Windows....then I hopefully have found a way to save $140.00 on an O/S, but I will have to see how all the different programs work to determine that.



But...I am wondering about security. Do I still need a firewall ( am running behind a router), anti-virus, the other basic defenses that most of us have for Windows?