To your list of good sites to visit for help and info, add:
http://www.linuxquestions.orgThere are forums there, but like CH there is a lot more to that site than just the forums.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions for the forums, or use the button on the main site.
The forums there are very active. It feels like there is a high ratio of friendly and knowledgable folks there. This is a good thing.
If you visit, be sure to take your time looking around. You'll need it.
A couple of boards withing the forum that you might want to be sure not to miss are:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-newbie-8and
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/ubuntu-63but you should peruse the list for yourself.
Your questions seem familiar, so I suspect that I've read something like what you are asking. I probably read it somewhere on that site.
The forums have a Search function, both across the whole forum, and board specific. Again - it will take some time - but it would probably benefit you to use that Search and dig around some. There is a
tremendous amount of info that can be gleaned by doing so.
If you decide to register and post, notice and read the 'stickies' at the beginning of the list of posts.
Here's to hoping that you learn a lot there, and bring it back here to share.