Have Ubuntu: "Is it safe?"

From: P T (Petepenguin_at_webtv.net)
Date: 10/31/05 

Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 09:03:33 -0600

I bought Ubuntu 5.10 (2 cds, "Live" and "Install;" from eBay ~$4.)
What now?
I guess I know: I put the "Live" cd in and see what happens. What I
want to know is- can it harm my system or files?

I have a 40g hd, XP Pro, MSN9, 384mb sdram, amd athlon xp2000.

About 3 years ago when I built this pc, I tried Suse and Mandrake, as
well as XP Pro. I partitioned the HD to 80% Linux 20% Windows, but the
Linux would not detect my Winmodem, so I used mostly the Windows.
Unfortunately, I filled the Windows partition up, and efforts to resize
the partitions were unsuccessful. I ended up reloading XP, giving it
the entire HD. It now occupies about 25%.

I've always hoped to get away from the MSN dependence, the $, and the
viruses of Windows. I thought I'd try Ubuntu. On the other hand, I
don't want to mess up what is on my pc. Can the "Live" version do this?
How does it work: does it sit on top of Windows and work through it as a
sort of application, or around it? What about the "Install" version.
That seems like a more drastic approach, and I suspect it might alter my
system.

Relevant Pages