Ok, I recently make a live cd to boot from but this is my first attempt at linux. There are two things I'm having trouble understanding.

1) How do I go about creating a permanant home directory for my personal settings and programs?

2) How does the installation of programs work? For example, I was trying to install AIM and could not understand the directions. (http://www.aim.com/get_aim/linux/latest_linux.adp?aolp=)