I am so new to Linux I can barely spell it.

I have not attempted an installation yet, just trying to accumulate some info before I go off the deep end.

As we all know Windows collects or causes the computer to collect all kinds of stuff that can muck up the system - cookies, temp files, etc. HistoryKill seems to keep my system clean.

----does Linux also collect these or similar bits of info? If so, do I/can I do something at or after the install to stop/pevent it. Is there a Linux version of HistoryKill? Do I need one?

Second question: If I install Ubuntu and later decide I really want some other distro, do I have a problem. Right now Ubuntu is a wild guess.

Thanx

Easy: x u n i l

all systems have tmp files and whatnot, and all browsers keep cookies, history, etc.
If anything, Linux has BETTER tools that Windows for this kind of thing

What problem were you anticipating? If you dont like Ubuntu, remove it and install something else. Depending on your hardware, you can hav ten or more OSes installed at the same time.

If you use KDE desktop, in the control center you can quite easily clear all collected information with only one click of the mouse.

It clears:

quick start menu
recent documents
run command history
clipboard contents
thumbnail cache
cookies
browsing history
web cache
form completion entries
favourite icons

I'm sure many other GUIs have a similar possibility.

Concerning which distro you use - the choice is yours. If you create a /home partition, all your documents will be stored there, so if you change your distro (on the / partition) you will be able to pick up your files where you left off.

I've used several linux distros on a dual boot/shared /home basis and also erased and re-installed different distros on the / partition without losing any files - obviously you need to do a backup first, just in case.

This is one of the great things about linux - absolute freedom.