Ubuntu Linux is brilliant
![jake-rayson.png](https://www.zdnet.com/a/img/resize/9c0ec531cfd82490185a8a2627df5d2f36791cba/2014/07/22/2a5985bf-1175-11e4-9732-00505685119a/jake-rayson.png?auto=webp&fit=crop&frame=1&height=192&width=192)
I had an Ubuntu Linux installfest in my local art gallery centre today. All 3 people had laptops that ran ridiculously slowly using Windows Vista. All 3 didn't want to spend the extra £100 to upgrade to Windows 7. So I persuaded them to upgrade to Ubuntu 10.10.
Unfortunately one of them uses iTunes a lot, and it's galling to see that Apple's restrictive practise of locking your music into the iTunes system/platform meant that it would be a total headache to liberate her music, so now I'll be downgrading her to Windows XP as the most cost-effective method of enabling her laptop.
The install itself went very well, and I quickly installed a few handy extras (GNOME Do, Ubuntu Restricted Extras and VLC) that the users wanted, with a background lesson in Free Software and Open Standards
All of this without paying a penny, all of this with a manual and a huge support community. All of this for freedom.
Blimey, Ubuntu Linux is brilliant ;)