Ubuntu: You've come a long way baby

What a pleasant surprise to give linux a spin on my machine. The last time I installed Linux in early 2008 it seemed a bit of a crap shoot. Drivers were hard to find or just plain nonexistent for much of my desktop hardware. I eventually found most of the drivers need for a daily production machine. It just all seemed fuddled and not very cohesive. And the  situation was nearly the same when trying to install linux on my notebook as well.

Server software for linux remains its strong point, as it has for over 10 years. But I didn’t want a server setup. I wanted linux installed as my main operating system.

Enter Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala. Wow what a difference a year makes. Everything seems to be working fine this time around. I can definitely see a performance boost using the linux equivalent programs for my everyday windows software.

With a blank CD and a broadband connection you can have entirely open source (read: free) operating system on your computer. A lot of the same caveats apply here as well. Most users will already have a windows operating system installed. IMPORTANT: If you still want to keep windows and your files, be very careful when installing. A dual boot system works great for most people. There is a very good article on dual booting Ubuntu here.

Thankfully the Ubuntu folks have made it very easy to try out Ubuntu using a live CD. This makes no changes to your system, you simply remove the CD from your system and reboot, no harm no foul. Not only is there excellent documentation for Ubuntu, there is a thriving and active community of programmers, developers and users.

So if you are interested in giving linux a try, head on over to the Ubuntu site and see what they got for ya.

I plan on blogging my experience with switching to linux this time.