Psh. Firefox has a fox. One that is AFLAME. That supercedes any performance upgrades Opera may have.

Firefox has huge memory leak issues. If you want to chop it down a fair bit - disable the back/forward button history - that thing can amazingly hog up a huge portion of space.

Wow....finally finished reading it all...

I knew ---NOTHING--- about computers before I started using Linux, and I started on Ubuntu, had no problems installing or running it, no problems doing anything that the help files in the gui that come with it, or the man command could not fix.
I love the customisability, and coming from Thailand, home of free-software, hacking, cracking, and the world's best black market for computer software (I got Photoshop CS for 25 cents, for example, as close to legit as possible), Windows is -NOWHERE- near as customisable as something like FVWM or IceWYRM or even XFCE or hell, even Fluxbox. And If it has become so without me noticing, it is nowhere near as easy on windows as it is on linux. I am sure of that.

I am not a Li-nazi or anything, but I do enjoy having an exceptionally high quality product, for free, with exceptioanl quality tools and programs.
I personally love the freedom of choice I get with Linux, a pertinent example is messengers...
In Thailand we have messengers that you do not have and are not supported in the USA. Thailand or Asia only messengers, etc, with special fun things for us slanty eyed people. Linux...has full support for them, Windows, does not. I have 6 messengers on my linux box, I can use Gaim, if I just want chat and not alot of lame features I will never use, or I can use aMsn if I want to do something more fun. If I want full featured Yahoo, I get Yahoo! Debian Linux, and it works perfectly, an exact copy of the messenger on Windows.

I enjoy hearing about the debate of windows v linux v mac, it entertains me, alot. But that arguement is a whole new beast when you take it abroad. In Thailand, Linux is very common, and ships with most notebooks and pc's with a dvd to put windows on -if- you want to. Suprised I never got into it before I came here, very much so.
I like Linux and enjoy the freedom it gives me to make choices, and piss off on those same choices for more choices...

When Verithrax first told me what a "window Manager" and a "GUI" were, and told me how easy it was to get more...I did. I went and got all of them I could find, and messed with them all... now I run Ubuntu Linux, with Metacity window manager and XFCE GUI.

But, the best thing about Linux... My Ubuntu is my own, it is nothing like your Ubuntu. MY box is my own, it is nothing like your box. My shell is my own, it is nothing like your shell. It is uniquely my own, and is a statement of who Mimi is. I really like that feeling, and the control I have over everything that goes on.

Oh...and there is the native language support thing too.... >_>
love-mimi

You forgot to mention that girls who are into FOSS are hot.

Well I'm still trying to get the ubuntu Live CD to run, and it won't. So much for ease of use? The thing gives up sometime half way through the boot.

*kick*

Maybe a bad image? hmm.

Either a bad image, or your computer simply doesn't have a proper configuration to run it, which is less likely. Or you got a liveCD image for a different architecture.

It's a fairly new laptop, and I used the 64 bit image...sicne there is a little sticker on my laptop that says something along the lines of AMD64 (I'm not on my laptop atm).

I've actually ran the live cd before, though not this copy, and the touchpad on my laptop did not work. I'm wondering if the cd from before was an earlier version of ubuntu and if that could be the issue.

AMD64 support is sadly still flaky, but this is very likely a faulty image. You can try getting a new one, or just try running the Ubuntu installer. You don't have to install, just boot and wait for the first installation screen to show up; that should be enough to confirm at least some compatibility.