I actually have three questions: One about my graphics card, one about my monitor, and one about partitioning. On the Ubuntu LiveCD's (I've the various flavors), my ATI Radeon Express graphics card prompts it to load a VESA driver and lock the resolution at 800x600x16 (maybe not 16 bit, but the colors are kind of ugly). I needed to load the generic VESA drivers when I used the GParted LiveCD as well. Now, when I loaded Puppy Linux, despite it incorrectly detecting some hardware, it gave me quite a few resolution options even under the generic VESA driver. Why is this different, and should I be worried? My monitor is a HP, and after the computer has been booted under Windows for about 30 secs, the screen goes black to adjust the image. Under Linux this never happens and the image because distorted slightly in some spots every once in awhile. Is there anything I can do about this, and is it harming the monitor? Under the GParted LiveCD, my NTFS file structure cannot be resized. Somehow, it is flagged to make that impossible. Is there anyway to undo the manufacturer's settings so that I can resize the partition and install Linux? I have a 7.49 GB FAT32 recovery partition, but I don't think that is big enough and I may eventually need it. Thanks!

Do you have the latest GParted Live CD? I am able to resize NTFS partitions. I'm just not able to move them. You could also try defragmenting the NTFS partition in Windows before you start GParted.

I do have the latest one (I just downloaded it two weeks ago from the site), and I defragmented my hard drive three times before trying. A friend of mine said that every new computer he's seen comes with the partition locked to prevent resizing, and that he's always had to reformat the hard drive and install Windows himself to change that.

For that part of my question, I'm basically looking for a more data-friendly version of that (no reformatting). =)

I also got resizing problems using gparted. I'm not saying it's not a good program however. After using it my win Xp installation was messed up, so I always resize in XP, do multiple deframentations, and run CHKDSK (with repair). It should work OK.
About the video question, have you downloaded your correct drivers from the repository? The best thing you can do is go to the ubuntu forums and do a search or ask a specific question (or browse the wiki).

These are all pre-install troubles that I wanted to understand before proceeding. How is the resizing doing under Windows? I've seen the partitioning tool, but either I didn't understand it or it just won't resize my partition. If someone could post a link to a step-by-step guide, I would be most greatful. ^_^

I'm afraid you will have to purchase a quality partition tool, or search for a good free one. I know there are a very few free ones, but they are hard to find.

You can also take your chances with Gparted to resize your NTFS partition. may be I just had bad luck with it. I'd advise you anyway to secure your valuable data (and re-check) before proceeding. If so, things will go smooth and you will have your system up and running in no time. Remember that a linux system is extremely reliable, you can use it for years without big issues (that's why I develop under Linux and compile for windows :D).
Cheers.

I've used QTParted on Knoppix before, however I wouldn't recommend resizing a Windows partition (I resized a Mandriva Linux partition once- it refused to fully boot). It might be worth getting another hard drive, to separate your OSs.

The ugly spots when starting Linux (X11) happen all the time (think it's to do with the gfx card buffer). Think the image adjusting is to do with the OS's drivers positioning the image in different places, there may be a way to adjust image position in X11.

Resolution is selectable when X11 is installed- this could be a LiveCD compatibility thing as LiveCDs have to run on all kinds of machines.

Thanks for your suggestions, guys. I just got a new Macbook, and I think I am going to learn how to use the terminal there for awhile, since it is all setup already. I know that BSD isn't the same as Linux but they are similar. Over Christmas vacation I think I will hollow out my HP's recovery partition and do a Linux server install so that I can become further aclimated to the command-line. I'll have my Mac if I get stuck and need to ask questions (I will practice enough so that it won't be too awkward).

Then over summer vacation I will install the Xubuntu desktop and learn the remaining parts of Linux! </end-master-plan> ^_^