Gnu/Gnome/Linux/Ubuntu? I'm confused

[J Wilson <wiseowl54-onlinecontacts yahoo co uk>]

To whom it may concern,

In late February I was forced into switching to a Free software OS, because Windows Vista is no longer supported and of course this also applied to Google which seemed to have forced my Firefox browser to stop working a while ago too. However, to cut a long story short, I opted for the Ubuntu Desktop although I also downloaded a couple of others like Mint & KDE to look at too and was daunted by what appeared to be a blank desktop.

And although this seemed to work fine to start with, I seem to have developed a few snags, including not starting normally, but going into 'boot mode' every day; and losing any responses to 'pings' on the icon for Ubuntu Software window. Although software 'update' seems to be working independently. However, as I was just reading that this package was actually copied from Gnome  and I've found your email address, I thought I'd ask you if you have had other reports of such problems and how to fix it?

I have wondered if it was anything to do with me using another programme which I also cannot access now, but it was some kind of C+ or C 'cleaner'. So perhaps it has dumped some of my files by mistake. And when rebooting I keep getting told that ubuntu-vg can't be found, or lvmetad either; along with LSB Armor? too. Again I assume that you might be able to tell me what to do to fix this as the original programmes may have been written by you. I have found another few 'quirks' that are annoying but this is the worst at the moment.

However, if I have any criticisms of the wonders of Free Software, it is the lack of simplicity of use although i appreciate that it seems to have been built with 'expert' users in mind, not 'plebs' like me. So is there anything you can do to improve that too?

Yours Faithfully

Mr J Wilson