[Cialug] Newbie Question

[Jeff]

Hello All
My name is Jeff and I finally took the big step and set up myself a 
dual-boot system with Ubuntu Linux and windows. I took the leap with 
Ubuntu because from what I've read, it was probably the easiest distro 
for a non-techie home user to set up. I found the install very easy and 
took less than 30 minutes to do on my home system. My initial experience 
has been nothing short of impressive. I've been able to figure out most 
everything so far but have some issues I have questions on. I realize 
I'm not in the league of power user like most of you gents (and ladies, 
where applicable), but if you could give some knowledge and benefit from 
your experience I would be greatly appreciated.
I've done Google searches and have found a large amount of info to read, 
but I have some questions that would help me get myself started since I 
learn better by doing than reading. First, as far as I can tell, I've 
installed Wine, but cannot find it in the applications menu and don't 
know how to launch it. I use  a wysiwyg program that is windows based 
and would like to try it using it within Ubuntu, but am not sure how to 
do it. I also am looking for a program to make copies of my movie DVD's 
but am not sure which one to use. And I want to install the Real media 
player to view video on websites I frequent, but not sure what "package" 
I need to install a "bin" file.
As i said, any help/direction would help greatly, and I would thank you 
ahead of time.