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Now normally I'd be posting in Linuxquestions because I am having a problem but I thought I'd post something nice for a change for all you lovely knowledgeable people who spend so much of your time helping others.
I've been dabbling in Linux for about 3 - 4 years now with varying amounts of sucess. I've pretty much stuck to Mandrake since it has the reputation for being the most newbie friendly and although I can use the command line, I'm nowhere near an expert.
The thing is, I've always had to return to Windows at some point because of some niggly issue or other which got in the way of me being able to do everything that I wanted to do with my PC (wireless connectivity, networking problems, ADSL modem support etc), and this has always gave me the impression that Linux (or mandrake at least) was nearly there, but not quite ready yet.
However, last week on a whim I installed Ubuntu, just to have a look at it and see what all the fuss was about and I have to say it was the easiest setup I've ever had to do. The install process was quick and simple, the OS detected my wireless card straight off and I was able to connect to my wireless network straight away. I was able to connect to my windows network with only the minorest of hitches(not being able to stream Mp3s from my Windows machine), and that was sorted out by inputting one line into the terminal. The package install process is right there on the menu bar and is totally hassle free. So within 2 hours of installation I could pretty much do all the normal browsing, listening to music, watching videos, contacting friends stuff that you should be able to do pretty much straight off when installing a new OS. In fact, I would say that it was easier, or at the very least as easy, as setting up a windows machine.
Of course it may be just a pure fluke of my particular configuration that everything worked straight off, but I am very impressed, and also very pleased that it's looking like I can finally ditch Windows on one of my machines.
In short, looks like (at least for me), Linux is Ready For The Desktop (tm). Hooray!
batgranny -- welcome to the Ubuntu fold. It's the Linux that I recommend to everyone, especially those still chained to the evil empire in Redmond. Come back again if the Ubuntu Gods ever get a little testy with you.
Totally agree with comments about Ubuntu. I've also dabbled with linux for some years, also thought it was nearly there but not yet. Use Fedora at work.
Now have Ubuntu 6.06 on the desktop and laptop. Install took about 15 minutes. EasyUbuntu and Automatix2 did all the dirty work of locating and installing codecs, fonts, applications etc so that I could watch movies, play music, etc. Like they say 'it just works'.
I use a lot of apps so with MSWindows it takes about a week before I get everything back to normal. Ubuntu takes several hours. And did I mention that with SCIM it nicely handles languages like Russian, Thai, Arabic, Chinese, etc etc.
I'll be happy to stick with 6.06 Long Term Support version until the next one is released.
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