yrtrnc:
If I was, I'd do away with using bitcoin-qt, or the terminal based bitcoind (god knows why some one suggested that for a self proclaimed newbie).
Use some thing like Electrum (
http://electrum-desktop.com/download), I've never used it, but it has good reviews from people here.
The major benefit from using it is that you don't have to download the blockchain (which could take hours or days); it gets all the information it needs it real time from the Internet.
Probably best to remove the bitcoin directories before you install it (just to avoid confusion later on): #> rm -rf ~/.bitcoin
and also remove bitcoin-qt and bitcoind just in case the bitcoind service has been set to start on bootup.
