Well, I have time today. And sometimes being somewhere where I don't have as many distractions is actually helpful to me. Once I typed a post that I was quite "stuck" on while at a subway station.

Well, they are really the same thing... Linux is the kernel, the underlying system that actually communicates with the hardware, and Ubuntu is a distribution of Linux, and just happens to be the one that I'm most comfortable using. There's also Mint, Red Hat, ... and a ton more that I can't remember and don't care enough to look up... 

OMG... success... I got the fucking thing to run again! Now time to try System Restore...