I have a geekish streak that is perpetually lurking in my subconscious and comes to the surface twice or thrice a year. This is a time when I normally, completely destroy my system and almost lose my computer files (fortunately I have always been able to save them eventually for I have some files as old as 1999). For a few months I have been playing around with Ubuntu, perhaps the most advanced version of the Linux operating system in terms of user interface. As it normally happens, I ended up obliterating my hard disk partitions. Being an experienced computer user (yeah, of course!), I took full backups before starting to install Ubuntu.
After wasting a few days and spending some money somehow I managed to install both Windows XP and Ubuntu on my laptop. Every week I spend a couple of hours working in Ubuntu, especially when my wireless connection conks under Windows XP. In Ubuntu, I can easily check my e-mails, send replies, work on my documents and occasionally write blog posts. For instance, I am writing this blog post in Ubuntu.
Why did I want to switch to Ubuntu when everything was working perfectly fine in Windows XP? In fact some of the software that they use in Windows XP is far superior than the Ubuntu alternatives both in terms of graphical user interface and functionality. My first reason was that Windows XP is quite slow and it crashes often. On top of this I had been reading for months what a great time Ubuntu users are having with no crashes reported for months, no need to reboot the system, stability and reliability, and a great interface. Anyway, here are a few observations of mine regarding Ubuntu:
- Great interface of course and I love the way Ubuntu renders fonts. For many weeks I have been trying to make Windows XP render fonts the way Ubuntu does but haven’t succeeded yet.
- Ubuntu recognized all my hardware on its own and my wireless networking connection never stops the way it does in Windows XP.
- I haven’t used it much, but Ubuntu has never crashed. Of course there are many programs that have crashed, but Ubuntu is not affected by that.
- Ubuntu is definitely not as easy to set up as many people on the Internet claim. Be prepared to have nightmares. It is not for the fainthearted, at least not yet.
- Windows programs, as claimed, can work if you install Wine on Ubuntu, but my experience has been horrible.
- Not everything is graphical user interface. If you are a power user then you will have to resort to some command line operations and this may involve lots of research on the Internet.
- Don’t switch to Ubuntu if you are a busy person, at least not yet (I am a busy person but my geekish doppelganger sometimes overtakes my judgment and it always culminates into a disaster).
- Windows XP doesn’t seem all that bad once you have spent a few days banging your head against the wall and trying to make Ubuntu perform even the simplest of tasks such as recognizing and mounting another partition.
A new version of Ubuntu is going to be released next month and I hope things will improve. I am very much open to switching to Ubuntu but there are many crucial applications that I use under Windows XP that simply refuse to work in Ubuntu.
I wrote this blog post after reading 25 Reasons to convert to Linux.