Hi, I got this LINUX distribution CD from the magazine "The best of LINUX". I was wondering once I install the "Ubuntu 9.10" on my Win-XP laptop, I can start to use my laptop like an UNIX machine with all the UNIX commands. Am I right or totally off?

Basically you're correct. If you install Ubuntu, either alongside Windows as a dual-boot, OR install Ubuntu inside Windows using Wubi or inside a virtual machine such as VMware or VirtualBox, OR wipe out Windows and Install Ubuntu all by itself, you can then use Ubuntu Linux just as you would a UNIX machine, with the UNIX commands.

If you wish to try Ubuntu out without installing it, just to see if it does what you expect, and see that it works OK with your laptop's internal hardware, just boot the CD and play with it - you don't need to install the LiveCD in order to use it; installation is an option, but not an absolute requirement. Note that installing it will definitely result in a faster-running system though, as a LiveCD runs significantly slower than an installed version.

To build on what GrapefruiTgirl said, Linus Torvalds wrote the Linux kernel to the publicly available Unix standards.

The Linux kernel was original work so it does not infringe on Unix in any way, though the commands produce the same results as Unix commands do because they were written to the same specifications.

The OP doesn't seem to know a thing about FOSS and just what Linux can do.

Just so you know, babysitter2, Ubuntu is a distribution of Linux. A distribution, or distro for short, is basically Linux's equivalent of what a "version" of Windows is: It's a modification of the source code, also called a derivative work. Because Linux is free and open source (linked to in the first sentence), derivative works of Linux are legal. But, you can still violate Linux's EULA: It's a copyleft (no, not a misspelling) license. This means that it's essentially dead-opposite of the copyright philosophy: The public owns it. The people (and by "people" I mean the entire world) are who own the rights, under copyright law, of the software. That means that if you try to create a derivative work of the Linux kernel with proprietary code, you essentially violate the license and will have to, by court order, make the proprietary code open source. However, any other use of the software is perfectly fine, even copying Live CDs and giving them to friends!

Hope this helps,
-Kenny