I downloaded and burned the ubuntu cd. What do I do now to get it going? I only want to play around with ubuntu to see if I like it. What checks should I do to make sure ubuntu downloaded correctly and the cd burned correctly? There are a few checks that are recommended; are they really necessary? Also, the list I downloaded ubuntu from had several other Linux distros, several that seemed pretty obscure, voted higher than ubuntu or PCLos. Aren't ubuntu and PCLos two of the very most popular distros? My understanding of computer is basic. Thanks for any replies.

just put the Ubuntu CD in your CD drive and restart the computer. It will boot off the CD (as long as you downloaded the live version) and you can play with it without touching your hard drive. If you can get to a useable desktop then everything should work fine if you install it.

I don't know for Ubuntu, but for PCLOS when you boot the LiveCD
there is a menu item named "MediaCheck". This will verify that the CD is
burned correctly. If it does not boot the LiveCD then most likely the
download or burn is bad. MD5Sum is the checksum used to verify
the ISO you downloaded is not corrupt.

http://www.linuxclues.com/articles/01.htm
http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/answer...5sum_in_Windows

There is the same thing in Ubuntu. Once you boot you will get a menu where you will be able to verify the contents of the disk.

Also just to make sure, did you just burn the iso file as a file or did you burn it as a disk image. Try putting the cd in while you are in windows, does something pop up or do you just see the iso file?