I've been using Ubuntu for a while now and I like it a great deal, but I'm still having some difficulty with it. I was wondering if you kind folks could answer a few questions for me.

1 - The main system issue I'm having is that boot up is SLOOOOOW. It takes about 5-10 minutes to boot. I haven't waited that long in years for an OS to boot. I don't think it's a problem with my laptop being slow, because everything runs really smoothly once I'm booted up (I've got all the graphical goodies going and it works just fine). Any ideas?

The rest of my questions are little UI issues. Sorry

2 - Every time I do a clean boot, I'm forced to re-enter my wireless security key. I always save it, but for some reason I'm unable to connect to a network unless I re-enter the key. This is highly annoying. I should be able to turn on the computer and have it automatically connect, and I should also be able to switch to another profile without having to re-enter the key.

3 - This seems like a dumb question, but how do I get new icons? I've tried all sorts of stuff, but can never seem to get it to work. I've been adding links on my panel and want to change their icons to something meaningful, but I'm stuck with the default icons.

4 - Another silly question. I have the desktop cube enabled. When everything is minimized, I'm able to hold down both mouse buttons and drag in order to turn the cube. Is there a way to do this no matter what the mouse is hovering over? I can't think of any other uses I'd have for holding down both buttons.

5 - Does anyone know of any guide for people who are coming to Linux, preferably Ubuntu-specifically, from Windows and want to learn the basics? The file structure baffles me, I don't know where 99% of the settings for specific tasks are, and (particularly coming from Windows) all this permissions stuff is hard to get used to. There are tons of situations where I've merely tried to move a file into a folder and it tells me I'm not permitted to do that. I'd really like to find a good, straightforward guide.

Thanks for any help you can give.