I have been living away from Windows in the wild country that is Linux for a couple of years now. Windows still infests my day job (in a good way) but Windows has been banished from home PCs for a long while.

This week saw the release of Ubuntu 9.10 and I am already running it. One of the things I love most about Linux is its ability to partition almost everything in clever ways Windows just has not caught up with. This time when I installed my system I setup my home drive on a separate partition. Installed Ubuntu and it pulled in all my settings as if nothing had happened, even my background wallpapers were integrated into the new ones.

In the scheme of things its only a minor thing, but it just makes going from version to version almost effortless.

Blue Screen Of “That’s how we roll”

I have to admit I have never had a real issue with Windows. I use it for my day job and I would not have a roof over my head if it were not for Microsoft and Windows letting me program. I will have a stand-up fight with anyone who says Microsoft makes crap software tools.. the simple fact of the matter is they don’t. C# and .Net is amazing development environments that I love using.

That is not to say I don’t have my fair share of problems with the OS. My new laptop came with Vista, and I thought I would go with it for a few weeks, just to see if things were as bad as I remember.

When it started Blue Screening after every update as a means of forcing me to reboot I decided I’d had enough. Linux rarely makes me reboot even after major component upgrades and that alone is enough to make me want to have it.

Windows 7 is available

I have had some time with Windows 7, and I will continue to play with it. But it is nothing more than a face lift, and a bug fix for Vista. The internals are the same a Vista and there are only minor new features. The claims about speed and performance were not evident when I played with it. It might run better on netbooks, but I think that is just because they have realised that is a growing market and they can’t afford to over look it.

Some things you can’t live without

But what the penguin gives with one flipper, he takes with another. There are some applications (only a few outside of development) that I have to have in order to make my life complete. They all come from adobe now and they are Lightroom and Fireworks.

I am an avid photographer and Lightroom is by far the best photo management software there is. Though there are a number of alternatives but nothing comes close to a 10% of what Lightroom does for me. So that I have to have.

Fireworks is my go to graphics application. Any problem can be solved in that application with pixel accuracy and fantastic compression software it can not be touched.

The solution is provided to me by Sun. Virtual Box. Allowing me to happily run Windows XP without affecting Linux in anyway. I could of course dual boot, but I would rather vitalize if I can. Its a little clunky as a way of doing it but as there are so few tools I want it works well for me.

The future soon

The future is bright for Ubuntu and Linux. This version (9.10) delivers some great additions and a good look. Boot time is way down, speed is up, and core features are working well.

The speed difference between Vista and Ubuntu is simply amazing. Even the live CD is noticeably faster (at least on this machine) than Vista natively installed on it. When an OS running from a CD is faster than the one on the hard drive, you know you have a problem.

If you have never tried Linux, you must give it a go. The Live CD means you can try it out without touching your current install so whats to worry about. Or you can even install it inside Windows as an application now so you can have a play before you commit to anything.

But I can assure you, once you have tried it you will not want to go back.

Tags: 9.10, change, ease of use, linux, speed, ubuntu, windows, windows 7

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 1st, 2009 at 2:15 pm and is filed under Computing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.