Trials and tribulations of a Linux newbie

I have been a longtime Mac user since 1988. I always thought that there was nothing in the world that compared to the Mac and the way it worked with the user and not against the user. In the early days I heard of Linux but was way too afraid to even give it a try seeing that I was a GUI type of guy. The command line brought me back to my primitive days with DOS. I felt it was an antiquated way to get things done. The only thing I saw in Linux was the dreaded command line and I DID NOT like that. I wanted GUI all the way. It just made sense to me.

Jump forward to 2009 and my second foray into the world of Linux. Wow how times have changed! Distros with user friendly GUI's great apps and a much more satisfying feel to the interface. The Mac despite the gorgeous interface also has a command line. Even though I know it's there, I rarely and I mean rarely use it.

At the moment I am happily rediscovering the various Linux distros out there trying to find one that has the same balance as the Mac. A drop dead easy to use interface along with a command line if need be. I have to tell you that the command line really is pretty cool after spending some time with it. I still cannot fully wrap my head around the ins and outs of the command line because I tend to view things in images etc... rather than code. I'm still plugging along.

I recently installed Ubuntu 11.04 on my iMac dual boot. I spend about 80% of my time in Ubuntu and the rest (20%) on the Mac. That 20% really irks me because I would love to go 100% Linux but a couple of things really bother me that I still can't do in Ubuntu on my iMac. The first thing is that I can't use the internal web cam that comes with the iMac. I read the help page on how to get it to work but have no luck so far . The second and most important thing that really bugs me is that I am unable to record anything from Sound In. I am a radio host so I need this functionality to record my radio shows. On the Mac side no problem. Works fine. When I boot into Ubuntu, there is no sound at all coming through Sound In. I have a radio attached to my iMac that I use to record my radio shows. I would love to get this Sound In problem resolved, and then, once these two issues are resolved, there is a good chance I will switch 100% to Linux. Until then I will just have to make due with that 20%.