Last weekend I got very bored and decided to reformat my hard drive and install linux. I’ve heard so many people rant on about how wonderful it is that I thought I should try it for myself. I wanted to install Red Hat Linux but I couldn’t be bothered to wait for it to download so I decided to use the Ubuntu CD I had lying around.
The installation process was pretty straight forward and only took about half an hour. The first thing that I noticed was that it only took about 1/4 of the time windows takes to boot up! The GNOME desktop enviroment that Ubuntu uses is very user-friendly and the menus are far better organized than windows:
OpenOffice worked very well as a replacement to microsoft office and so I was able to get my English project done quite easily. OpenOffice even has a replacement to powerpoint called ‘Impress’. I was able to access the internet without trouble since ubuntu comes with firefox installed.
Thus all was well… until Wednesday came along. At which point I realised I no longer had BSplayer or any of my divx codecs installed, so I wasn’t able to watch the new episode of Lost (a brilliant TV series ;)). Fortunately some codecs turned up after a bit of googling and was able to watch the new episode using Totem player.
Initially I installed ubuntu just as a trial and also an excuse to wipe my hard drive clean. However I’ve grown to like it a lot so I think I’m going to carry on using it for now. I may reinstall windows once Vista is finally released but even then I may decide to just stick with linux.
I’ve got a heap of copies of this lying around here. I tried it on a PII 400 once, but it was really slow, so I might have to put the live disc in my P4 and see how it goes.
I love ubuntu!!! I been using it when I first came out.
I’ve been toying with the idea of switching from XP to Linux. You’ve just nudged me a little more in that direction. 🙂
Ubuntu is a great distro to use. A couple of weeks ago I managed to download and install the Dapper Drake Flight 4 development version. With the regular daily updates through the Update Manager I’m slowly watching this version mature.
Anyone installing Ubuntu Breezy be aware that a major security bug was found recently, in that the root password is stored as cleartext in the initial installer logs.
url http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-262-1
Can’t it be possible to have Vista and Ubuntu on the hard drive??