How to deploy Vertica to my Local Windows machine?

Hello, I finished "concept" online training, now I am ready to install software to see how it works in reality.  I have a Windows 7 machine, I was told that Vertica doesn't work on Windows, but Linux.  So I installed Oracle VirtualBox, then I downloaded ubuntu12 OS, installed it on top of VirtualBox, I even cloned 2 more so I have 3 Linux instances.  Now I am ready to install Vertica, but I don't know where to start.  I have never used ubuntu12, it has some basic UI display, but I couldn't find command prompt.   Also I tried to install "CentOS" because it has very similar layout as RedHat, but I couldn't get it working on VirtualBox.  So please kindly help me for the installation.  thank you very much!  Kan