Hi there! I'll try and answer your questions in turn:
Quote:What exactly is KDE and Gnome, etc, and what are Ubuntu and Fedora in relation to them?
KDE and GNOME are 'desktop environments'. A desktop environment is the collection of graphical programs you use. For example, your file manager program is part of the desktop environment. KDE and GNOME are different choices of environment that are available (there are also more). I'd recommend GNOME if you're new (it's what is default with most anyway now) and KDE if you want loads of configurability.
Ubuntu and Fedora are distributions or distros. A distribution is everything - all the software you need to make up a working operating system. The desktop environments alone won't get you very far, as they're just the pretty graphics that sit on top of the OS. The distribution will include everything from the desktop environment all the way down to the geeky stuff that powers the OS.
Quote:and does anybody have any suggestions for how I should go about getting Linux? or what "distro" I should install? I mostly use my computer for multimedia.
The best way to get Linux is to head over to the website of the distro you want and download an .iso image. You can now use your CD burning software's "Burn ISO image" option to make a CD which you then boot the computer from. As to which distro you should try, that's a difficult question.
Ubuntu is one of the easiest just to pick up and use, but we have a lot of people here who use
Fedora, so we might be able to help you more with that.
Quote:Lastly, after reinstalling XP, I was told that I needed all these drivers from Dell to make it function. Am I going to run into this problem with Linux?
It's quite difficult to tell without knowing the exact specs and model number of your computer. It should work, though. An easy way to try would be to download Ubuntu, burn it and then boot from the CD. What Ubuntu does is it boots straight off the CD into a working complete operating system, so you can try it out without committing to installing it (it will be slower than usual because it's running from CD though).
I think that would be a good way for you to try it out and see whether it works before committing.
Quote:I know I am not very good at this computer thing, and I appreciate any help that you guys can give me!
No problem! That's what we're here for! :)Hope this helps.
