Ubuntu :: 10.04 LTS Vs 10.10 Almost Made Me Go Back To Windows?

Back in July I bought an Acer Aspire ONE KAV60 with Xubuntu installed on it. I used to run Linux a long time ago but had not messed with it for a couple of years and I was surprised to find out how much more "user friendly" Linux had gotten (With Ubuntu anyways). There are more and more GUI programs/processes now days which makes everything easier to do, however there are a couple of things that I have found in the last few months running Linux only on my little netbook.

When I downloaded Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid and installed it from the Xubuntu, I was quite satisfied with the general desktop setup and ease of the operating system. I loved it, it was like going from OS/2 to Win95 all over again! (I'm not that old, I just started young). Here recently, I ran into a little problem with 10.04 and had to re-format, but when I went to re-download it the new 10.10 was available instead. I threw it on a flash drive and installed it on my netbook only to have "problem after problem" upon installation and had downloaded and installed 10.04 from the archives in a matter of a few hours after messing with 10.10.

There were plus sides and down sides to both right off the bat. I am a nerd I suppose and I have started to play a game called Runescape. After installing 10.10, I opened up Runescape and was able to use the "Re-sizable" screen option! That's an amazing option with Runescape on a netbook. I then opened up my favorite and most used program suite called aircrack-ng. I had the apparently infamous problem titled "fixed channel mon0: -1" and was completely unable to get it working (even after reading the SOLVED article on here.) I spent probably 2 hours trying to figure out that problem and was unable to do so. I cannot be without the aircrack-ng suite so I decided to revert back as I fore mentioned.

Upon reverting back to Lucid LTS from the archives, I was happy with the smoothness of how it runs on my netbook compared to 10.10, but as soon as I logged onto that damn game Runescape, I was on a mission to figure out how to correct the "fixed channel mon0: -1" issue on 10.10 so I could have the re-sizable screen option again.

I finally figured out that I needed (from a fresh install on 10.10) to do apt-get install patch and apt-get install gcc before I could complete the steps of the SOLVED issue guide. This was never mentioned and it made me realize I still need to know what I'm doing if I'm going to run Linux and then maybe I won't have all these issues.

Out of all this, I have a couple of questions and would like to learn more about Linux so I do not have these problems in the future. Here are a couple of questions I would like to mention first: What is gcc? I had all that trouble just because I didn't know to install gcc to do the tutorial.

I believe the re-sizable screen option is available for me in 10.10 and not 10.04 because of Java. I did not have to install Java in 10.10 at all, I just opened up Runescape "out of the box". In 10.04, I use Sun Java with the apt-get command in Terminal. Does anybody have any information to confirm or deny this?

Once I got aircrack-ng working in 10.10, I was surprised to find out that it is amazingly fast compared to 10.04. I believe this has to do with drivers. I was able to use aircrack-ng (after install) "out of the box" with 10.04 so I did not download the "compat wireless" drivers that had to be used in 10.10 to get it to work.

If I were to revert back to Ubuntu 10.04 (I much prefer Lucid for my netbook, runs much better), would I theoretically be able to download a different Java and use the re-sizable option on Runescape? Would I also be able to use the "compat wireless" drivers in 10.04 to make aircrack-ng send and receive arp's and ack's so much quicker?

Last but not least, I would like some sources if possible to better learn Linux from. I mean Terminal type Linux, I do appreciate (as I said earlier) the new GUIs that are available now and I didn't have before, but I still feel the need to know my way around the system and I just don't have that knowledge.