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10-19-2008, 03:04 PM | #1 |
#PretentiousBastage
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Ubuntu!
I just moved cold turkey from Windows XP to Ubuntu. So far it's been fantastic, I can't
believe how intuitive and easy to use this is! For a long time I was in the same boat as most Windows users. I was intimidated thinking that Linux was the same as in the days of "Redhat" when there was no graphic installers for programs and everything had to be done by command prompt, like the days of DOS. That was mistake #1. The Add/Remove programs in Ubuntu is far superior to windows. The other factor for me was my aging hardware. My current laptop is a Dell XPS 9300 that I bought three years ago. It has a decent CPU, 2 gigs of RAM and 256 MB video. On Windows, every 6-12 months I had to wipe everything away and start over again. My machine would just get slower and slower. I just got tired of doing this. Yesterday I backed everything up on my external hard drive and wiped the slate clean with the latest version of Ubuntu. I'm so impressed so far. This OS comes with almost everything I use anyway; Firefox, Open Office and a huge range of graphics/sound editing (Audacity, Gimp, etc.). The only thing I needed to install was Thunderbird and Skype. Doing this was so easy, just clicking on the menu, Add/Remove programs, and you can type in any application you want to download, click the checkbox and it downloads/installs automatically. For quite some time my ultimate goal was to free myself of Microsoft programs all-together. I was thinking for years, some day, Linux will be user friendly and easy to use enough where I won't need Windows at all. I am 99% sure that day for me has arrived! The only challenge I've had so far is to figure out how to read/write from my Maxtor External hard drive. It was actually not too hard. I just had to download NTFS-3 for Linux and boom, I was back in action. Now I just have to figure out how to import my thunderbird e-mail If anyone else here is running Ubuntu (Chip, Frank, where you guys at?) I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences! |