Thinking about making the switch from Mach 3 to Linuxcnc

Thinking about making the switch from Mach 3 to Linuxcnc. My pc is a 32 bit Nobilis duo core 2.2ghz with 2gb ram and a 80gb hd. I'm run the latency test as am typing this, right now it shows max jitter servo thread at 32780 and base thread at 18548.
I used DBAN and wiped the hd. I made a bootable usb with Linuxcnc 2.7. Found a you tube that showed how to install it, don't know way I need to put 3 partitions on it but I did. So it's install, it is the only thing I have installed, I did do a update and installed lshw. I have been trying to figure out how to get a desk top icon. Also I have been looking for a GUI that is something like Mach 3.
So my question is “What's next on the list to do?” I believe I need to configure it somehow, so I've goggling that. Not much luck cause it all looks like geek to me. Here in north Iowa we have a saying DTAP (dumber then a post). That's me, I had never see linux before about 2 weeks ago. I'm sure I'll have oh about 4,020,001 more questions to ask.
Thank you
Don
base thread at 19089 now

If you kept a copy of your Mach3 configuration files. You can use the Stepconfig wizard to import many of your old settings from the Mach3 xml file.

I don't think there is a gui for Linuxcnc that looks like Mach. Use the included demo sim configs to find the gui you like best.