I started out using computers a long time ago. Here is a brief re-cap: My first computer was a Commodore PET, simple and fun. I moved form platform to platform as different options became available for me to experience: Apple II’s at school, a Mac SE that my parents bought, PCs running DOS for Autocad. From that point on I stuck with DOS/Windows based machines because I had invested in software for that platform.
As most people know, Windows is a double edged sword, it seems easy at first but there are lots of potholes on this road. Windows 3.1 seemed to become corrupted almost weekly, and I was constantly re-installing it. Windows 95 was more stable, but you always had to exit into DOS to get some applications to run. Windows NT 4 suffered a similar problem as 95, and was drastically different in terms of system administration. Windows 98, and ME were really only patches to 95 to support USB and a few other technologies. And then finally windows 2000. Stable and robust like NT 4, but more inline with the workstation user than NT 4 which really felt like a server environment. I really liked Win2K. Even after XP came out, Win2K was better because it was just as stable as XP, but could be run on half the computer that XP required. Half the RAM, drive space, and video card. Eventually XP’s bells and whistles won me over and I switched. It made some tasks really easy, and the improvements from day to day were enough to convince me to switch. When I built my new PC I wanted to move XP onto it, so I had to decide whether I wanted to shell out for another license of XP, or try something more daring. I settled on trying Linux.
The first time I ran Linux I tried Suse 9.2. It installed easily and ran well on my older P4 1.8Ghz. One day I decided to upset the apple cart and re-install Windows just to get my ATI All-in-wonder running to be able to capture video again. (The Linux support for this is little more than a hack and it was really a pain in the butt at the time) So back to Win2K. It ran well for about six months and then about two weeks ago Media Player stopped working. So I went to uninstall it, and the Add Remove programs popped open with a gray bar down the side of the window, a string of text across the top, and no icons, or menus. Crap! Now what. I could re-install windows, but clearly I didn’t have a really good opinion of it after it just finished crapping on me. So the only logical choice was something free, robust and simple. I’ve reading a lot about Ubuntu Linux, Beryl adding Vista-like enhancements, and knowing that Linux ran well on this box before.
I burned the Live disk, booted into Kubuntu (the KDE desktop version of Ubuntu, still Ubuntu but a different X-windows interface) and clicked the Install Icon on the desktop. A few questions later the desktop popped open, I installed a bunch of free applications, and I was running again. Just as windows is a double edged sword, so is Linux. It’s easy to install, easy to run, and there are now lots of ways to keep it updated and running. The downside is it isn’t Windows. So there isn’t a vast selection of applications, games, and hardware support. My video card, for example, is more than capable of handling OpenGL screen savers, but the Linux drivers that come out of the box cripple the video card to a staggering level. But if all you are looking for is an OS that’s easy to install, can run Thunderbird for email, Firefox for the web, and enough security to keep hackers, and spyware out of your life, why would you bother paying Microsoft for a license of Windows? Now if only I could keep myself from trying to squeeze more juice from the video card and other hardware and end up breaking the damned thing I’ll be just fine.