For those who have visited ZDNet over the last week, you may well have noticed that there seems to be a bit of an anti-Ubuntu vibe at the moment. Our new Tech Broiler blogger loves it but claims that Ubuntu itself hates him, while TechRepublic editor-in-chief has been singing its praises to even out the balance.
Well just to throw an additional spanner in the works, life-long Windows user though still the rampant Microsoft hater that I am, I have finally made the jump from Windows 7 - still a great operating system, to Ubuntu 10.04.
Gallery To see an in-depth look at the reasons why Ubuntu 10.04 replaced Windows on my laptop, head on over to the screenshot gallery.
So why? My desktop machine will always be a Windows machine, but my laptop has 'deteriorated' over the last year since I first bought it. It's become clunky, difficult to use, and the touch-screen hinges have become loose. I would replace it, but only when it finally kicks the bucket. Funnily enough when it does, I'll be heading straight for the local Apple store.
The main deciding reason was after my laptop spat in London, knowing full well that Windows was no longer suitable for my laptop. But the shift to Ubuntu was nothing more than a massive gamble, and it didn't take me long to realise how well of a choice I had made.
So what made me stick with it and not go running back to Windows?
Ubuntu 10.04 doesn't need any of that. From the word go, even on an Acer Aspire One the enhanced 'wobbly windows' graphics work with no need for drivers or most of the time a settings change.
And if you are so inclined, you can still run Internet Explorer through WINE and Safari also, though you may have to dig into the terminal (command line) window to do so.
Install WINE which emulates a Windows environment seamlessly into your Ubuntu desktop and you can run any Windows-specific application as if it was on its native operating system. There's even a huge database of troubleshooting tips for a vast number of popular applications.
There are so many options, no two Ubuntu operating systems could ever look alike. You'll feel like a kid in a candy shop.
I do believe this is the only thing that Windows 7 has that Ubuntu (10.04) isn't capable of. But not for lo.ng
Ubuntu One is a synchronisation utility which allows you to share a folder in your home drive and upload the contents to the web. You have 2GB to begin with but can expand it to 100GB on the cheap. Depending on your ISP's policies, you can restrict the amount of bandwidth you use when synchronising and you can even hook up your mobile device too.
For me, this is the killer feature for my academic escapades.