It's been a while since my last post. With my busy schedule, the last months of 2006 were a blur. Christmas came and the New Year passed. Feeling burnt out, I found myself quitting my job right at the beginning of the year.
As part of the changes in my life, I also decided to end my dual-booting days, and to start using solely Linux on one of my home PCs. I reformatted the old HD, had Ubuntu up and running in a day (or night, as I have to work in the wee hours of the morning, when the kids are asleep. My two sons can be quite a handful at times).
Again, I found it a breeze to install Ubuntu. I didn't encounter any problems related to the OS not recognizing my hardware. Upgrading from the 6.6 Dapper Drake version to the current 6.10 Edgy Eft was also straightforward, requiring just a few line changes in the apt source list before I could download the 500+MB needed for the version upgrade. With EasyUbuntu and Automatix, installing other applications in Ubuntu even became easier than I could remember.
With Windows XP, I remember that I had to shut down after installation, open up the case, physically remove my sound card, restart the box, shut down, insert the sound card again into the slot, then restart again, before I could get any sound from my speakers.
Before I went Linux's way, I mulled over in my mind the benefits of upgrading to Windows Vista, which officially became available last Jan. 31, but common sense (money, or the lack of it) dictated that I take the more practical route. Moreover, Vista will require an upgrade to the PC I just acquired last year, never mind my other older, but recently upgraded, desktop. Being the tightwad that I am, I won't spend anything on hardware, even if I had the money. Reading a recent eweek article comparing Ubuntu (and OpenSuse) with Vista was the clincher, and I decided not to dally anymore.
I could've chosen to dual-boot again, but I'm just so tired of dodging the Microsoft bullet that I decided not to go that way again. I'm glad I did. In the week since, I've never seen a crash, I've installed Netbeans and MonoDevelop, and have experimented with the GIMP and Scribus. Whether I can live in a Windows-less world, I've yet to see, but from the looks of it, I think I can. As for my other PC, it will be on Ubuntu in a week or two, once I find the time.
As part of the changes in my life, I also decided to end my dual-booting days, and to start using solely Linux on one of my home PCs. I reformatted the old HD, had Ubuntu up and running in a day (or night, as I have to work in the wee hours of the morning, when the kids are asleep. My two sons can be quite a handful at times).
Again, I found it a breeze to install Ubuntu. I didn't encounter any problems related to the OS not recognizing my hardware. Upgrading from the 6.6 Dapper Drake version to the current 6.10 Edgy Eft was also straightforward, requiring just a few line changes in the apt source list before I could download the 500+MB needed for the version upgrade. With EasyUbuntu and Automatix, installing other applications in Ubuntu even became easier than I could remember.
With Windows XP, I remember that I had to shut down after installation, open up the case, physically remove my sound card, restart the box, shut down, insert the sound card again into the slot, then restart again, before I could get any sound from my speakers.
Before I went Linux's way, I mulled over in my mind the benefits of upgrading to Windows Vista, which officially became available last Jan. 31, but common sense (money, or the lack of it) dictated that I take the more practical route. Moreover, Vista will require an upgrade to the PC I just acquired last year, never mind my other older, but recently upgraded, desktop. Being the tightwad that I am, I won't spend anything on hardware, even if I had the money. Reading a recent eweek article comparing Ubuntu (and OpenSuse) with Vista was the clincher, and I decided not to dally anymore.
I could've chosen to dual-boot again, but I'm just so tired of dodging the Microsoft bullet that I decided not to go that way again. I'm glad I did. In the week since, I've never seen a crash, I've installed Netbeans and MonoDevelop, and have experimented with the GIMP and Scribus. Whether I can live in a Windows-less world, I've yet to see, but from the looks of it, I think I can. As for my other PC, it will be on Ubuntu in a week or two, once I find the time.
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