I need to remember to write a note with the Wi-Fi chip info so I can
download the right drivers when I take this Vista (read white screen
of death) machine to a place with Wi-Fi. (I don't have any
communications but a cell phone at home.) I'll have to have "Ubuntu
Hacks" with me. I'll also have to figure out how to install stuff
that's not where Synaptic Package Manager lo0oks for it. I think I
have all the information. It looks like a lot of things I've never
done before. But I don't see anything that could trash the machine.
I'll muster some courage and give it a go.

An install fest is a gathering of a few Ubuntu in-depth users at a
public location with CD-ROM and 3.5" versions. They help senior
operating-system phobics (like me) get Ubuntu installed and
configured so we never have to open a terminal screen. Actually I
like the terminal screen as long as I'm just moving and renaming text
and images files. The Ubuntu file system is very nicely arranged.

(Fourteen years ago my employment involved rote use of rlogon, ls,
mkdir, mv, and 2 or 3 others under VxWorks (an expensive, embedded,
UNIX-like, and dream-beautiful OS). I should have started using
Linux then or before.)