Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex

Alright, so on Saturday I decided I was going to format the partition of my hard drive with Windows Vista on it just to clean it off and give Vista a new start. I figured why not at least try because the last time I had gotten a clean start was when I got this notebook on Christmas; and it was covered in useless HP software.

While looking around in my hard drive for some possible last minute data that I wanted to save, I noticed that windows was offering me a chance to go ahead and format my drive from a drop down menu. Formatting right then and there in the GUI seemed pretty convenient; but I was skeptical of the chances of that actually DOING what it said it was going to do. Predictably, an error window popped up telling me something about how I couldn't do that at that particular time. While I was exiting out, however, all the information under my drive disappeared. As you would PROBABLY suspect, I began to mentally freak out a little.

Thankfully, all I had to do was pop in the Vista recovery disc and it repaired everything while also formatting and re-installing Vista. I no longer wanted to USE Vista, obviously. So as soon as it was done formatting and doing a clean install I put in my Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex CD, and began my journey into the wonderful world of Linux!

...Unfortunately, it didn't FEEL that wonderful at first. The install went by smoothly and quickly; and most of my drivers worked out of the box. My wireless card however, did not. I spent anywhere between two and four hours sifting through the community, looking for past decisions. I FINALLY found a solution that worked though, and have not had an issue with it since.

After sorting my internet problems out, I started actually working on my system. It took me a day or two to get used to Ubuntu again; and despite what most people will say, you WILL get frustrated. If you come from the World of Windows like I did, terminals, package managers, and configuring your graphics will take a lot of time to get comfortable with. Nothing in life worth having comes easy, as they say. Once I became acquainted with the user interface it got easier and easier as I went, though.

As hard as it may seem using terminals and package managers over the simple point and click method of Mac and Windows, it's actually quite rewarding. Downloads are fast, simple, and safe. I don't feel nearly as vulnerable because whenever you install something or the system tries to open an important file, it asks for your password. Seemingly annoying, yes, but in reality it's all part of the excellent security of Ubuntu. I haven't even CONSIDERED finding a third party security software yet.

Aesthetically, in my opinion, Ubuntu out of the box is gorgeous. I had a problem only with the icons and the fonts without any modification. A lot of people really don't like the way Ubuntu looks. "Windows 98 with too much lipstick on" is a common titled I see placed upon the GUI; but that's the actual beauty of it. It's extremely, extremely simple out of the box. No special effects, no shiny and glassy themes, and no folders full of pre-designed desktops. In Windows, all of that is merely bloat software and effects that we rarely use or notice. All of the special effects are THERE, they're just turned off to save CPU power for those who don't need them; and the theme of EVERYTHING is customizable. Websites like Gnome-Look.org provide everything from themes, to cursors, to system sounds, and of course, screenlets.

Speaking of screenlets, Ubuntu has applications for EVERYTHING. If there was an app you loved on Windows or Mac, you can be almost completely assured that there will be one like it on Ubuntu. My personal favorite right now has to be Conky. It's a simple desktop moniter for your entire system. It's entirely customizable, and there's a huge amount of pre-made Conky scripts available.

In my opinion, that has to be the best thing about Ubuntu. Everything is completely driven by the community. Almost every bug gets noted, and gets looked at. There are apps for everything you could ever want; and there's an array of replacement software for almost everything from Mac and Windows. People are always working, commenting, reviewing, and posting tutorials for so many different things it's impossible for anything to be impossible on Ubuntu as long as you're patient. It's designed with the people in mind, and that's exactly how it works. It's made to work for people who have lower end systems, and it's got the eye candy and power to satisfy those with top of the line power user systems.

Speed is essential to my daily use on Compaq Presario (CQ50) notebook; and Vista most certainly wasn't working that way. Windows 7 was faster, yes; but Ubuntu takes the prize for speed. I've never felt like my OS was actually working faster than I was until now. It actually took me a while to get used to how fast it was compared to my previous OS experiences. I even have all of the graphics and eye candy turned all the way up without any sort of lag or speed issues. Firefox is as impressive for me as it was in Windows, if not more. It feels smoother, the gNOME GUI is very nice to look at.

Mozilla Thunderbird is wonderful, to me. I never liked using Outlook, so I had always been turned off to email clients for the desktop. To my discouragement, I had trouble setting up Evolution; so I decided I would download and try Thunderbird. Once I got it configured for my Gmail account (which only took only about two minutes), and once I used it for a while, I fell in love with it. It's very comfortable and easy to use, and it just feels natural to me.

There's actually a lot of Mac and Windows replacement software out of the box for Ubuntu. GIMP, Pidgin, and Rhythm Box are three of the programs I find myself using CONSTANTLY; and for me they're just as good, if not better, than they're famous counterparts.

So yes, I am completely happy with my switch from Windows. Do I plan to abandon Microsoft or Apple? No, not really. I don't see myself staying away from either permanently. I'm still beta-testing Windows 7 on this notebook on a small partition, and I still use it frequently. I don't see myself ever going back to Windows XP again though, and I DEFINITELY will never go back to Winodws Vista.