anyone have any experience with ubuntu?

[Jack.EXE]

if anyone has any tips to share with me before I make the switch, please tell.

[nightlitezzz]

There aren't a lot of games.

[Guest]

Mint is better.

[MetalLobster]

Try it out first with a VM using VMware or Virtualbox for a week or two. After that, decide whether you still want to switch or not. 

[Godlygamer23]

If you're installing Ubuntu on an older machine, it will run a lot better than Windows because it's much more efficient.

[Jack.EXE]

it's actually going on my main rig after it's windows meltdown.

[Godlygamer23]

Okay. Then definitely give it a try first. You can use it in a VM or even install it using Wubi. It installs as an application and can be simply removed by going into Windows and removing it from whatever application you use to remove programs.

[Maxibonbits]

Open a terminal after it is installed and run this command, this will install everything you need to play almost every music/video file. Unlike windows most media players for ubuntu share plugins for playing media files so this is a must install. 

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

You should also learn about the terminal, you will be using this a lot. Here is an in-depth guide to the terminal.

[grayperview]

Install Gnome, the new UI in ubuntu (12.4) is terrible.

 

Use Gnome classic, install compiz, and have fun.

[Jack.EXE]

Reccomend to me which to get? 13.4 or 12.4 LTS

Also what about drivers? And custom backgrounds? How would I put my background on it? How do I get icons on the desktop? I heard it has trouble with wifi (Ethernet is NOT an option for me, sadly)? Explain Wine?

Basically, I'm a total noob when it comes to Linux. I've had 13.2 on a vm for a while, I know about packets and Firefox, but that's about it.

[grayperview]

download WUBI (12.4), install it from within windows it will install as dual boot, without messing up your hdd partitions, have a look at it and see if you like it

 

As far as drivers go, Ubuntu is pretty good at finding and installing them during installation...

 

Ubuntu is like windows when it comes to background icons and stuff,

[Godlygamer23]

Install Gnome, the new UI in ubuntu (12.4) is terrible.

This is extremely subjective. You may think it's terrible, but others certainly don't.

[IdeaStormer]

Its fine, as with all Linux OS's if one Window Manager is not for you you have many to pick from. From the resource hogs that look and do/add a lot of GUI like KDE4 and Gnome3, to the mini ones like FluxBox and Xfce4 and the rest in between, some can even make it look like Windows. So don't get hung up on one window manager (most people's concern) you should try more than one to see which is best for your use. Some Linux distro's basically build off the same one (Debian) and then rename it something else just because they do something different with the window manager (aka LinuxMint and some others), but down deep its still Debian.