So Much for Ubuntu

Well - that was kinda disappointing. I got loads of good advice about how to install new stuff onto an Ubuntu system (thanks to one and all!) but none of it seemed to work for me: the 'alien' program wasn't there so I burned a CD with the right Ubuntu package ("Edgy"?). I played around with the Package Manager thing and was able to read the CD from it. When I tried to install all the things I wanted, it complained that I wasn't connected to the Internet! Why did I go through all the hassle of finding and creating the CD when all it does is point me at a URL?
Anyway, I took that as a sign From Above and installed Fedora instead. OK, so it was 5 disks instead of 1, so installation itself wasn't so easy, but once it was running.... NICE! So far, I've been able to load whatever I want -- without being on line -- and can run entire sessions in something other than English (maybe Ubuntu does that too? Never noticed if it does). More to come, now that I'm running again...