Applications :

Web
Firefox!
->and Adblock Plus to go with that
My Yahoo! (iGoogle isn’t quite as well done)
Answers.com
(web search either Yahoo! or Google)

E-Mail :
G-Mail
Thunderbird! (accessing G-Mail)
*(only for outlook) -> xobni (in case your wondering, inbox -> xobni)

Web Design :
Aptana Studio
A List Apart
Fireftp
XXAMP
Drupal

Operating Systems:
Mac OSX
Ubuntu
Windows
(there all good, with different strengths, and I use them all.
However, my primary computer is Win XP based with a virtual Ubuntu)

System Utilities :
7-Zip,
Yahoo! Widgets (Google desktop widgets are WAAAY too unstable)
Google Desktop (only for the search, it bogs down lesser computers, but it allows for Super Fast Accurate searching of EVERYTHING.)

IM clients {
Digsby | Skype }

Editors :
Paint.net (or something like enhanced paint)
Google Sketchup
Adobe Photoshop Elements
Adobe Premiere Elements
Inkscape (for SVG, or Illustratons)

Text Editor :
MS Word
Open Office
Dark Write (or somthing like that)

Remote Desktop {
Microsoft Built-in XP Pro | Tight VNC (for connecting to macs from windows) }

—->
That Should be about all, is there anything I missed, or anything you think shouldn’t be on here.
You can Google all the apps names for download or to use, but try to find legitimate sites (C-Net, the Author’s Site, SourceForge), or you can just ask for a link. – Iain

I pushed the power button and push F10 multiple times during startup to access the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System). (The key differs with many computers.)

I told the computer to start off the CD drive. I then popped the Ubuntu install CD in and restarted the Ubuntu on the hard drive, run off the live CD and several other options, which we will not cover in this article.

I clicked install Ubuntu on the hard drive and it opened a window asking me the language I wanted to install it in. After selecting my region, I clicked forward. It then asked me what keyboard layout I wanted. I selected the default and clicked forward.

This time it asked me how I wanted to partition the hard drive. Since I was install this over the previous Operating System, I clicked “Guided-Use entire disk” and went to the next window.

I then waited while it set up the hard drive. (This can take some time so don’t worry if it takes a long time. It took about 25 minutes on my 80GB hard drive.)

It then asked me for my name, a password and what I wanted to name the computer. The next window presented me with some handy options. It asked me if I wanted to import accounts from my last installation of Ubuntu (I was reinstalling Ubuntu).

The next window gave me a summary of my selections. I then clicked install. I recommend getting a snack at this point as this will take quite a while. There is a handy progress bar that tells you what is going on and the percentage left if you are bored and have nothing to do. This installation is much simpler than any Windows installation you will do.

Also, it only requires you to reboot once, and that is after the installation is finished. When you restart your computer don’t forgot to go into the BIOS and set the computer to boot from the hard drive.

I forgot to do that and had a shock when upon starting the computer it said there was an error and couldn’t start!

from Guest Writer, Theo

I’ve always liked computers, websites, and have recently started getting into PHP after learning xHTML and CSS.

Throughout this process, I’ve discovered lots of great resources and learned lots of great things.

Some of these are there is always something to learn or do. This stuff fascinates me.

If you are interested in learning more about (x)HTML (to get your feet wet ), visit my favorite tutorial for getting started in (x)HTML (and no, it isn’t HTML for dummies) — http://htmldog.com. There, just thumb through the tutorials, do the exercises (if you wish).

Once you’ve done that, I’d recommend looking further at W3Schools and Tizag.com, both are more indepth, but they can help you find out how to do something and supplement what you’ve already done.

Then, consider reading the nettuts.com (great all-around tutorial website) and CSS Newbie (css help and interesting tutorials) and AlistApart.com (slightly more technical, but great archives, pioneering techniques).

Phew! Some fun stuff to look at for learning javascript, go to W3Schools’s tutorial and Tizag Tutorials. Then, look at jquery.com or another javascript framework, like Prototype Javascript. A good resource for jquery is http://jqueryfordesigners.com/.

And, some good PHP tutorials can be found in this article, I’ll get to more in depth ones later. — Nettuts PHP from Scratch.

If you still want links look at this article (which probably includes the kitchen sink ) – blog.themeforest.net.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment, and I’ll consider writing a tutorial or just emailing you if you need help.

When things quiet down around here, I’ll start writing my own tutorials here.

Good luck!