Switched from Windows xp to Ubuntu

This week I have switched operating systems.

For about the last six or seven years, I have played around with different Linux distributions, creating a partition on my various computers Hard-drives and installing there. However, even though I liked them, and wanted to get rid of Microsoft products forever, I always found that in one way or another the Linux distribution that I had didn't meat one of my needs from a computer, either hardware or software.

I think I installed most of the popular 'flavours' of Linux at the times, such as SUSE, Mandrake (now mandriva), Red Hat, Knoppix, debian, freeBSD and others

However, recently after a year or two of not trying any Linux distributions and having only the super insecure Windows XP on my laptop, I decided that with the many constant frustrations, including the bloated feel of Windows, to test out a version of Linux.

Deciding which one to try came down to SUSE, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Puppy Linux, Knoppix, Mint, PCcentos.

OpenSUSE 11.0 desktop.

I was considering Puppy Linux as I have read it to have good hardware support, but I decided against it because I want a fully fledged operating system, not one that is designed for portability.

I decided against Mint or PCcentos because I didn't like the default MS Windows desktops styles, which I know they can be fully customised, but I was feeling shallow like that. However, I am considering trying out one of these, if they have Live-CD's.Linux Mint 5.0

My final decision came down to either Ubuntu with the gnome desktop environment or it's KDE brother Kubuntu. In the past I had always been a fan of KDE due to it's customisability and general feel, and on the one occasion I tried gnome out, I didn't like it. But for some reason, at the last minute I decided to download the Live-CD and try out Ubuntu.

Ubuntu 8.10

On loading Ubuntu from the live-CD, I was impressed with the slickness and feel of the desktop, and programs such as the nautilus file manager amongst other things. Also, researching things, I was impressed by the support and community for Ubuntu on the Internet.

After, playing around I decided to install Ubuntu. Initially, I had some problems trying to resize my Windows dominance of the hard-drive, and had to download and use a freeware partition tool in Windows. But this worked, and I partitioned my hard-drive giving the majority of space to Ubuntu. I decided to keep Windows XP, just in case of problems.

Installation was great and easy. The only problems being with my ATI Radeon graphics card and the lack of support from ATI, which means the proprietary driver doesn't work as good as it can, but I can still play 3D games in Linux, maybe it's a mixture of my laptop being a few years old and also the ATI driver.

Advantages:
1. Security, the lack of Linux viruses means I don't need a virus scanner, and also even though I have installed a firewall (Firestarter) it's not really needed, especially with a hardware firewall.
2. Speed, I find that booting up, and especially loading the desktop is sooo much faster, the Windows XP was taking extremely long to load the desktop and all the items in the taskbar, even after I had changed many settings and tried to improve performance. I have improved the performance of Ubuntu even further by changing the booting options, such as removing bluetooth support (my laptop doesn't have it) and changing the start-up programs. The open-office software did initialy take a few more seconds too load than I wanted, but after changing the softwares memory and java options, it loads in a matter of a few seconds.

Also, loading programs like Firefox is extremely quicker.
3. Support, the ubuntuforums are very helpful and friendly and there are also many other websites I have visited for news, tips, help and ideas.
4. Choice of software. Ubuntu comes with many default programs installed for every type of activity, but thousands of more programs are available from the Ubuntu repositories.
5. Cost, Ubuntu and the software is free and open source.
6. Customisability, unlike Windows, which gives you one desktop environment, where the only customisation that can be realistically done, is change a few colours. Ubuntu and Linux operation systems allow you to change ANYTHING about it. There are many website that offer various items to change gnome, from the login screen to the panels (like the star bar in Windows) to how gnome works. Don't like the gnome desktop? why not remove it and install another one like KDE or one of the other ones designed for speed.
7. Ease of use, Ubuntu has been designed to be user friendly, for example searching and installing new programs is as easy as running a program (Synaptic Package Manager) which lists thousands of programs available, and choosing which one, the the software will automatically install it for you as well as any other needed files to run it. Very easy.

For me, a semi-power-user, the only disadvantages for me personally, are the lack of video/audio chat for MSN messenger, as I use MSN messenger in Windows to talk family back home in the UK, but this is really the fault of Microsoft and not Ubuntu or Linux, so maybe I will try out Skype. Also, the lack of dvd, mp3 and video playback could be considered a disadvantage, but this was fixed in a matter of a few short minutes, by quickly opening up the package manager and selecting install restricted drivers.

Finally, sorry for the structure of this post, as I have written it after 20 hours without sleep, with most of those hours used learning the Python programming language