Ubuntu

I've recently installed the latest version of Ubuntu (7.10) on my laptop and I'm dual booting it with Windows XP Professional.

There's no specific reason as to why I've installed a Linux distribution on the laptop other than just as a test platform. I'd gone through a period about 10 years ago where I had given serious thought to installing Linux (SUSE 6.4) on my main desktop but ended up not bothering; the install routine was quite daunting. Anyway, I've used older versions of Ubuntu Live CDs in the past and been most impressed. Just after the New Year I ordered a couple of Ubuntu CDs (x86 and x64 versions) and thought I'd give it a try.

I've been really impressed with the ease with which the Ubuntu installer resized and created partitions and with only the minimum of interaction installed and set itself up. The only info I had to enter was name, username, password and time zone settings. It hasn't grumbled about any of my hardware and even recognised my Wireless card. After entering my WEP key I was up and running on the net in no time. I must admit there's been significantly more updates to download than with a Windows XP SP2 install but it's not been too great of a hardship.

I'd almost go as far as to say that the new version of Ubuntu has brought Linux goodness into the reach of the not so tech-savvy general public. Firefox on Ubuntu, unsurprisingly, looks and feels exactly the same as the Windows version. Evolution, the email client was a breeze to set up. OpenOffice is a free, and pretty good, alternative to MS Office and Pidgin is a nice multi-format IM client in the style of Trillian. There's nothing I've come across so far where I've missed a Windows client or application. About the only downside is the lack of serious game support but Wine can help in that respect.

I'm going to play about with it for at least another month or so and then give some serious thought to adding the x64 version to my main desktop PC.