I think there's a problem with your approach - could you give us a bit more information as to your technical ability and background - how experienced are you with computers?

I hope you realise that Linux is an operating system not a program?  could you run us through the specific steps you took after you downloaded it?  I hope you didn't just doubleclick on the iso?   better yet - you may want to try ubuntu forums for installation troubleshooting.

I'm also curious as to what you want to learn - computing is a very wide field and even in computer security there are a number of paths you can go down.  there are a number of "get me started" threads on these forums if you'd like to have a read of them and come back with some more specific quetstions.....

have a good read of this thread also - perhaps may clarify some things for you:
http://www.ethicalhacker.net/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,54/topic,2902

Yeah I know Linux is an OS. To tell you the truth I'm not very tech savvy (don't even know if I used that right) and my friend did the installation for me. I'll check out the Ubuntu forums for sure though, I never even knew they had a forum XD

As for what I want to learn? I'm not really sure, however I'd really like to get into programming, hacking, and security. I'm still fairly new and I took a comp course last year studying HTML, but we only learned the basics. Seeing as I'm on the comp all the time, I'd just like to learn some cool stuff and maybe pursue a career involving comps in the future.

But yeah, I don't know much at all.

I'd definitely recommend to start out with ubuntu as your learning os for linux, it's the easiest switch from windows.  As for programming, hacking, and security you'll need to start with the basics, so first I'd learn the PC hardware inside and out and everything works and how it interacts with the OS at a very low level as well as learning the ins-and-outs in windows and linux.  While doing that i'd start looking at learning a programming language, for security I'm trying to become very proficient in C, Java, and Python.  There are a ton of different languages to choose from but starting somewhere and mastering that will make learning any others much easier.  Once you have those both down well I'd next immerse yourself in networking, learning the concepts and how everything works in data communications.  Once you get there you'll have a firm base where you can begin testing with different tools and learn how to hack different devices.  That is a very short version of how I would progress and I'm still in the progression myself.  I'm sure others will be able to give their opinions as well, good luck!!

I am trying to make them active, I have been posting a bunch here lately.    Unfortunately @ work, I get the dreaded "Blocked by Websense".  I don't want to break the rules and create a shell account and tunnel around it, but I just might have to..lol

I'd agree.  I also think that the signal:noise ratio is very high.  The forums are frequented by a whole bunch of very knowledgable people and everyone generally posts very thoroughly, which eliminates the need for others to follow up with additional information, leading to shortish threads. 

I hope it stays this way as much as possible as it becomes more popular.

I just wanted to say I do like what I've seen here so far, I'm pretty early in my career and trying to break into security.  There does seem to be alot of talented people here willing to share their knowledge, and some great resources as well.