How to orient myself to Ubuntu's Unity interface
It made me
relieved 
"One or two new things, but not so bad."
How I did it:
I've attached a screenshot of my desktop so you can locate all the icons I speak about below.
In Ubuntu the task bar is at the top of the screen rather than along the bottom. You'll find the power button up there on the right along with the time and calendar, volume control and other indicators for things like your battery, bluetooth etc.
If you move your mouse all the way to the left of the screen, a vertical menu of application icons will appear. This is called the launcher and offers you quick access to your favourite/most important applications.
You can add, remove or rearrange icons. You can learn all about the launcher and how to use it here.
Note that when you open an application, its icon will appear on the launcher (whether or not it was there before) and remain there as long as the program is active.
If you minimise an application's window (the minimise, maximise and close buttons appear on the top left rather than the right) and you want to access it again, you will need to hover the mouse on the left of the screen to make the launcher reappear, and click on the icon to maximise the window again.
In this way, the launcher behaves similarly to the taskbar along the bottom of the Windows desktop.
1) One of the icons looks like a home button (which it basically is) and this takes you into your filing system so you can browse for a file.
2) The cog with a spanner takes you into your settings so you can do things like add a user, adjust appearance, check your drivers etc. Like the control panel in Windows.
3) The topmost icon (black with a white ubuntu symbol) will take you to what is called the dash - here you can search for an application in much the same way as you could in the start menu in Windows.
Alternatively, you can browse your applications by categories such as media, internet or office.
4) Another important icon is the Ubuntu Software Center which looks like an orange shopping bag with bubbles exploding out of it.
Here you can search one big repository for an application that you need and compare applications before selecting and installing one. It's kind of like Amazon for programs but most of them are free :) There is no equivalent in Windows.
And those are the most important things to come to grips with to be able to get on with work and play :)
Resources: In learning about the launcher:
General questions/information:
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wren cheered this 3 months ago
