Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex Release

Hi everybody, ComputerGuy6 here.

Well, I've been testing and playing around with the Ubuntu Linux OS lately. For those of you who don't know about it, go to www.ubuntulinux.org to find out more about it. For those of you who are familiar with Linux, you might know about it.
Anyway, since Linux is free, and you can change and modify the parts of the Linux Kernel freely, I've downloaded a CD image of Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex Release Desktop Edtition, and I've installed it as my second OS.
So far, it's been working pretty good, and the words you are seeing right now have been typed using Ubuntu. My laptop is a Dell Inspiron 640m which I bought 1 and a half years ago, and it's built for Microsoft Windows Vista, not Linux, so I was worried if it would work or not. I burned the CD, and inserted it into my laptop, and then the Live Installer showed up. It said that I could install Ubuntu just like a normal computer program, alongside Windows, using the same partition, or I could boot from the CD and use the rugular installation and create another partition for Linux.
The second option failed, so I used the first option, which was faster. Since it COULD install alongside Windows WITHOUT a special partition, plus it had a SPECIAL INSTALLER made for installing it alongside Windows, that gave me some more confidence, because there was a good chance that it would work properly. After installing, I rebooted into Ubuntu, and it turned out that it ALREADY had all the Windows drivers installed. That ment that I could write emails and surf the net INSTANTLY, right after installing. It was pretty impressive.
I searched the Ubuntu Wiki about hardware not functioning, and it turned up "Ubuntu Laptop Testing". All that stuff was for installing Ubuntu on laptops, and testing to see if they would work. I searched my laptop, and it turned out that there was one CRUCIAL problem, the MediaDirect button.
All Dell Inspiron 640m's come with buttons for entertainment, such as Play/Pause, Stop, Mute Sound... but they also come with a "MediaDirect" button.
That button was for starting the Dell MediaDirect software, which just a copy of Cyberlink PowerCinema preinstalled.
When Ubuntu is installed, it does not recognise the special partition made for MediaDirect, and when you press the MediaDirect button while Ubuntu is running, it messes up the whole partition and OS, and without an OS recovery system, you'll lose ALL your files, AND the Ubuntu OS.
That's why I've been very careful with my laptop while runnung Ubuntu.
It's faster then Windows, do I've been using it a lot lately.
Fellow Ubuntu users, PLEASE post me a comment, because I'm new to Ubuntu, and there's probably some important things that I don't know about.

Have a nice day!

ComputerGuy6