I've been playing with Linux since 1995. I'm not a heavy programmer, and my livelihood is based on databases with mostly high level programs and administrative functions.
In that timeframe, I've installed and run Redhat, Suse, FreeBSD, Gentoo, and Solaris at home. They've all been so-so as desktop replacements and I've had technical glitches in The Matrix while trying to do my day to day things on all of them. None seemed ready for primetime.
Over the last year I've been running Fedora with more or less success. It was stable, but had some things I didn't care for. Installing it was like most Linux installs, a pain.
One of the constants of Linux installs I've performed have been the need to 'tweak' to get things to work, and to ensure I have the drivers for my display, printer, sound, keyboard, network, and other peripherals working properly. In other words, it works in a half ass manner usually with one or more things requiring external intervention.
Ok, so yesterday I decided to give Ubuntu a try. I downloaded the .iso via bittorrent, and fired up my PC awaiting the upcoming Linux fix mousehunt. I finished installing, and... everything worked.
So, I went into my /home folder and double clicked on an .mp3 song waiting for the usual pain of finding codecs. A window popped up, and automatically installed it. Likewise for video. It imported all my old settings seamlessly.
Color me impressed.
Last month I struggled with Vista. My drivers didn't work. The interface felt like something was missing or haphazardly patched together. The media player ran like a tank with a cylinder engine. The desktop sidebar ate my cpu. The applications launched and gave me strage messages. It felt like a Linux install!
Ubuntu installed and just worked. I run a normal set of peripherals and I rely on my desktop to perform a variety of functions, including media center, printing, messaging, mail, and programming. So far, everything has worked out of the box with ubuntu.
Better, I've added the packaged I wanted and removed the ones I didn't need via the package manager, with no ill side effects.
Kudos to the Ubuntu team. I'll be on your distro for a while.
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