Hi, as of right now, I have PCLinuxOS installed on my computer. I like it because it ease of use and many applications (unfortunaly, half of them which I don't or probably won't use) I've been reading the great reviews about ubuntu and have a few questions. How is the availability of applications in terms of ubuntu on deb and PCLOS on rpm? Would ubuntu be good for programming, because recently I've been trying to learn python. Also, would I be able to code and compile Java on it? How is it media wise? Would I be able to use DOS emulators for it? Thanks for the help. Ubuntu looks really tempting and so far (using the live at the moment) and it seems like a good distro.

I say go for it.

In terms of application availability, enabling the "Universe" and "Multiverse" apt repositories gives you access to about 16000 packages.

For programming python, you can install Python easily (sudo apt-get install python). For other languages, you need to install the development packages, which takes a few minutes to find them all For Java, you can install Java like on any other distro. I have instructions Here, or you can find other instructions on the Web. Follow the "Debian Specific" instructions in the above link, it will make your life easier

Ubuntu does not come with MP3 support by default, but you can enable it easily. Kubuntu comes with Amarok, which is, IMHO, an excellent media player. You can also install Mplayer, Xine or whatever.

I don't know about Dos emulators, but I assume you can.

I hope this helps
--Ian

Ubuntu doesn't come with development packages installed by default. You will need to add these using apt, which is a simple enough matter.

Personally, I despise RPM based package management. The Debian and Ubuntu repositories are over 17,000 packages now I believe so you shouldn't have any problem finding the applications you want.

For (K)Ubuntu, the repositories are probably larger than for PCLinuxOS.
Sure. There are two advanced Python IDEs (with project management, code completion, etc.), ERIC and IDLE.
Sure. By default, the free GNU version of Java is installed. You'd probably want to install Sun Java, first, and then install the fully-fledged IDEs NetBeans or Eclipse. - Those three are not included with the repositories, and you would need to download and install them manually. You need to inform yourself before installing Sun Java, but it's not hard - just copying and pasting some commands. NetBeans has its own, proprietary installer (works like a charm) and for Eclipse, you just need to unzip it to have it runnable.
Ubuntu doesn't include proprietary software. You'd want to install the w32codecs to add support for, i.e., MP3. That's simple, too.
bochs or dosbox. There is also an Windows emulator called wine.