Good for you. I switched to Kubuntu (KDE version of Ubuntu) about 1 1/2 years ago and never looked back. I do still have a Windows partition around just in case I can’t get a game or app to work through either emulation or virtualization, but haven’t found many cases where it’s needed. It’s a small portion of my drive. One thing I do want to suggest is if you truly want to go the open source route, check out innotek’s VirtualBox - it’s a VMWare-like product that’s open source as well and licensed under the GPL.

We have four computers in our house, 2 desk, 2 lap.
My notebook is a company one, so i have to use windows anyway.
I switched my wife desk and notebook to Ubuntu recently. First I installed Firefox, Thunderbird and OpenOffice on her computers running windows, so she got used with them. Then I installed Ubuntu and actually she is very happy. She is not a tech, just a normal user, mostly she uses internet and docs, and mail. She didn’t noticed a lot of changes in her user experience, but she told me yesterday: it’s faster, and… cleaner…
On my home destop i installed another hd and ubuntu on it, i am running dual boot , but I am using ubuntu more and more and I switch to windows just to run WOW (it works on wine but not so good) and itunes…
I think Ubuntu is great for users who need a system out of a box, easy, simple: mail, file, docs, internet, music, video, all is there ready to go…
Ah, updating is a breeze, installing is simple too, i just love it…

I think that if you switch to Ubuntu you won’t regret. I mainly use my laptop to work and to do uni’s projects, but the only app I needed to emule by wine is the game Soldat :P I’m obviously not a hardcore gamer, but I’m sure that, apart from games, you can find a free replace for you windows apps.
Just give it a try and keep a partiton with windows for playing if you want. You’ll see that you improve your productivity too ;)

Congrats! I’ve been using Ubuntu since 6.06 Dapper Drake. It’s the first Linux distro that’s made me believe I can completely get rid of Windows. I still use my Macs, but all the PCs in my house now run Ubuntu or Linux Mint (Ubuntu with all the proprietary codecs already installed). I’ve recently started to learn how to use the Gimp and Inkscape, so I can leave the super-expensive Adobe products behind. Have fun switching!

Although I liked Kubuntu, it did not like my hardware so well. I could never get my ATI TV Wonder to work on any flavor of Linux. My HP 6210 AIO printer/fax/scanner could print but not scan or fax and, of course, none of the AIO buttons worked with the computer any more.

Software-wise, I found MANY apps that would work perfectly in Windows but would not under Linux (Office 2007, Roots Magic, Picasa2, PhotoImpact, VideoStudio 8, Roxio Easy Media Creator, etc.). Even under wine, I could not get some to work except for very rudimentary functions at best.

I installed Kubuntu in a dual boot config but gave up after a week of hardware and software incompatibility frustration. Besides, Linux has its own language I had to learn (”mounting” to me is a sexual term - mounting a hard drive, well, that’s just wrong!). I was continually baffled by language that didn’t make sense to me.

And I don’t even do games.

I don’t look forward to Vista, but Linux just isn’t ready for prime time yet, imho.

When Linux recognizes my hardware, runs my software, uses language that makes better sense, and looks good (which it already does nicely), I’ll be back…

Until then, my WinXP experience, with all its problems, is still better than Linux by at least an order of magnitude. And even Vista, which feels like a step backward (remembering WinME), is FAR superior to me than any brand of Linux - for everyday desktop computing (particularly desktop publishing, multimedia creation/manipulation, and gaming).

BTW, I tried Thunderbird last year as a possible Outlook replacement - couldn’t do it then. This year, TB has evolved to such an extent that I’m using it instead of Outlook - and prefer it. Linux is evolving and will only get better with time. Maybe next year my concerns over it will be history - and I’ll take the plunge and not look back - especially if Vista proves out to be WinME revisited.

I am a software developer and I’ve been using Debian and Ubuntu for almost 4 years now.
I sometimes have problems with the lack of codecs, but after I realized that when using Linux I am in control of my own computer my regrets vanished.

You have to realize there is no such thing as a perfect product, but Linux respects your freedom, not to mention that you’ll have a huge productivity boost if you start doing things the Unix-way.

Sure, Adobe Photoshop is not available, but Photoshop also costs a lot of money, and once you get accustomed to alternatives like GIMP, Inkscape, Krita and Xara Xtreme … you won’t need it anymore.
Not to mention there are tons of cute applications, like Digikam (for photo management).

There are literally thousands of high quality applications available for FREE (both as in price, and as in Freedom) running on Linux.
Sometimes you will miss the commercial software that’s available for Windows, but when you consider that you practically own the Open Source software that’s installed on your computer, and that you can do whatever you want with it … there’s no match for that.

My advice … try something based on KDE, like Kubuntu, because it is more user-friendly (and KDE 4 will rock). But also install GIMP, Firefox and Thunderbird (or Evolution), because the KDE equivalents are not that great.

Good luck.

I have a new box that runs only Ubuntu. I can dual boot on my laptop. The biggest problem in Ubuntu right now is video editing. There simply isn’t anything actually working right now that compares to Premiere, Liquid, Pinnacle, etc. Especially for Hi Definition. Photo apps are pretty good in Linux, Gimp is not bad. Photoshop has not quite been equaled yet but v.7 runs well in Wine, and any version works great with VMWare.

I would recommend keeping your desktop Windows for now and running Ubuntu on it with VMWare. 3D acceleration is the main reason. It doesn’t really work in virtual machines yet. That way you can run 3D games and hardware intensive video and audio apps still in XP, and run most of Ubuntu’s goodies just fine (except for the 3D desktop effects of course.) Probably in the next year or so it will be possible to run 3D in virtual machines, and some key video editing apps project for Linux will have matured, and then we can all have our cake and eat it to.

Your post reminded me almost exactly of my recent switch to Ubuntu.

I had just 3 weeks prior reinstalled Windows XP on my laptop and in that short time, it got corrupted. Actually, less than a week went by before it started acting up on me. I have no idea how or why, but my sound would stutter no matter what program was emitting sound, it ran seemingly in slow motion, and it took forever to start up and shut down. I timed it once and it literally took 20 minutes to reboot.

Obviously there was something screwed up with it. I should point out that I’m not an average-Joe computer user. I used to do tech. support and troubleshoot computers. I’d have my A+ certification if I had bothered to drive 200 miles away and pay a fee to take the test, but it wasn’t worth the time or effort just for a piece of paper that says that I know what I already know that I know, ya know? ;)

Anyway, I know my way around computers and know how to be safe and secure, even if the OS isn’t. So, in other words, I didn’t stupidly download a trojan or virus, I didn’t delete important .dll files, & I didn’t install the wrong drivers for my hardware, etc. You get the point. This was Windows fault, plain and simple. So it needed to be purged and reinstalled. I picked a quiet Saturday morning and started the reformatting process.

I had installed Ubuntu on a partition a few days before this Saturday (to try it out) and I was happy with it. I have a laptop, but despite all the horror stories I’ve heard about laptops and Linux incompatibilities, Ubuntu worked just the way it should, right from the start with no tweaking necessary. I swear I had a brand new computer; I mean a top of the line brand spankin new one that you’d pay 5,000 bucks for today.

My reinstall of XP took the entire freakin day. Including the reformatting of the HD, the reinstall (actually the re-ghosting) of the OS onto the hard drive, all the updates that I had to installed, the countless reboots between the updates, and then more updates; it took nearly 12 HOURS!!! to reinstall Windows XP, no exaggeration. After that much screwing around, I finally decided that I had enough with Windows. All the years of frustration, reboots, slowdowns, decaying OS, security vulnerabilities, reformats finally took their toll. I wiped the entire HD clean and decided to install Ubuntu as my sole OS. I wish I had decided that 12 hours before, but I’m glad I made the decision.

12 Hours for Windows on a broadband connection, that’s just plain nuts. I can’t imagine how long it would take on a dial-up account. On the flip side of the coin, Ubuntu took about 20 minutes to 1/2 hour at the most to reformat, partition, install, update, reboot, and I even installed a bunch of programs in that time period. 12 hours for Windows to do what Ubuntu did in less than 30 minutes. Ubuntu is so much more efficient than Windows in nearly ever possible way. I always knew that Windows was bloated, but I really had no idea it was THAT bloated. Windows reminds me of that guy at the restaurant in Monty Python’s Meaning of Life. Windows definitely needs a “wahfur theeen meent”. ;)

Here’s a perfect example of how much more efficient Ubuntu/Linux is. my highest download speed in Windows, ever, was around 194 kb/s. Ubuntu rarely ever goes that slow. I’ve actually hit well over 2 mb/s (around 2,400-2,5000 kb/s). That’s over 10x faster than Windows transfered on a good day (and just after a fresh install). I hit speeds of over 1mb/s almost every day in Ubuntu. Windows usually averaged about 10-25 kb/s on a daily basis. There’s something seriously wrong with the way Windows handles networking. Actually, there’s something seriously wrong with the way Windows handles almost everything.

I’ve been using Ubuntu exclusively for about a month now and aside from getting used to it, I have no complaints. I haven’t had to edit config files, I haven’t had to use the terminal window, and I’ve installed and uninstalled tons of programs with no ill effects or slowdown. It just plain works and works right.

Reading all of these comments sort of makes one wonder who Microsoft’s environment became so popular.

Oh well.

Wubi is an excellent program. I had wanted to install Ubuntu but being non-geek was afriad of having to partition my drive etc. Wubi Rocks!

Wubi is an unofficial Ubuntu installer for Windows users that will bring you into the Linux world with a few clicks. Wubi allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other application. If you heard about Linux and Ubuntu, if you wanted to try them but you were afraid, this is for you.

http://www.cutlersoftware.com/ubuntusetup/wubi/en-US/index.html

I think the bulk of users of Windoze are just non-technical folks that believe the Micro$oft corporate sales pitch, and their one or two favorite programs only run under Windoze…Office, and no one has bothered to show the masses how a Unix Install with Open Office runs so much faster and cleaner for them…

Until Dell or Gateway begins offering Linux OS based PC’s, then the Windoze trend will continue…however, in the last year or so have begun to see a leaning among the Tech class toward Linux PC’s…

I have begun to move my game playing from the PC to the Playstation console, and that is what will free me to make the move to Linux this year or next. I have installed Firefox on the main home PC, Open Office is next, and once everyone is using those products completely, I’ll uninstall Office 2000.

I’ll have to find a emulator for the Direct X PC games that are installed, before I can make that machine a Linux-based PC.

Keep your heads in the clouds, Micro$oft, soon your user base will be gone, no one will buy your bloated, slow, frustrating operating systems anymore.

Cheers! 8)
pcwiz…

I gave Linux a try for a while but ended up spending more time trying to get to do what I wanted versus being productive. I’ve never had any problems with XP and it will continue to be my primary OS for the foreseeable future. How ever I do see myself giving it a go again in the future as I have no plans to move to Vista.

http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxoffice/

It’s like Wine, based off Wine actually, but apparently easier to work with. The site has a database of software people have tried that you can search through. FYI, GTA:SA is listed as “known not to work” for now.

Can’t say much more than has been said here already … started with Linux back in the early days of RedHat, gave up for a while, came back to Linux when Ubuntu came on the scene … and like many others, have not looked back. Totally pleased with Ubuntu … now in the testing stage of Gutsy Gibbon, the latest soon-to-be release set for October this year.

I’ve installed Ubuntu on my own older laptop and self-built desktop systems plus several other computers from old to new without a glitch on any of them. My first install a few years back was from the install CD included in one of the Linux mags but all since then have been from burned ISOes initially and then via the absolutely painless online update/upgrade process … which, by the way, goes on in the background allowing you continue to use your computer for other purposes as well as without multiple reboots. From the beginning to the final stage of installation is so absolutely painless and without the need to allocate countless hours for installation and that rebooting I mentioned (which Windoze requires for basically every system update/upgrade). Plus the fact that upgrading from one version to the next is just as painless and you don’t get charged another “fee” for the new version.

The plethora of open-source software available surpasses, I believe, that other OS by leaps and bounds … with the possible exception of some gaming. Dunno since I’m not a gamer, just judging by rumors. And much of the rest, such as OpenOffice and Firefox, I had already been using anyway …

Sooo … have I had any regrets? None … absolutely none! Will I go back? A resounding “No!!!” … it hasn’t even crossed my mind .. .

And for any who choose to take the Ubuntu path to freedom … welcome to the community …

Ubuntu was nice to have, only it only offered the Slow browser Firefox. I got around to installing Opera and hate to say that it was even slower. Read into installing Windows Internet Explorer and was a little much over my head. I’ll stick with Vista, IE7 is hands down the best and fastest browser out there for me.

Until Ubuntu allows IE7 downloads without hacking, I’ll stay with Vista.

…and for those not concidering not changing to Vista from XP is a mistake, Vista is so addictive with many many extra features compared to XP, you will see!

Keith

Russ, I hear ya man. The more I play with Ubuntu, the more I like it, which in turn leads to me being closer and closer to making a complete switch.

Alas, I am still a gamer though, so I shouldn’t say “complete switch.” I believe I’ll keep a Windows XP partition available for games only. ;-)

Mikael, that is a good decision … an excellent way to make the transition …

I kept a small partition for XP while I made my choice to switch completely over to Ubuntu … both for the safety factor of having a back-up system to boot into if ever I needed it and because some important navigation software I used is not available as Linux programs. As of Feisty, though, I decided to drop that other OS completely and use Feisty as a safety while I made the move to this newest release, Gutsy Gibbon. That’s when I wiped the other partition entirely …

I think you’ll find more games supporting Linux in the very near future. You will also find gaming support on the Ubuntu forums from many gamers who have begun using Ubuntu …

This week I put together a new system with all the latest…dual core, SATA drives, etc, and decided to try out Ubuntu. I never have, due to the software compatibility thing, but due to programs like Crossover Linux, VMWare, etc., I decided to try it. Yesterday was one of the most stressful days I have had in a very long time, trying to get Ubuntu set up the way I would like. I finally got over the constantly putting in my password to do anything substantial, but have not managed as of yet to get anything installed without major problems. Mind you I love all the cool features, way beats Windows…if I could just get what I want on it working! I think I am going to have to go back to Windows though. I figure I will use my old system for Ubuntu, and learn on that one, and change over when I finally can get a handle on things. I am actually pretty computer savvy, but I am really bashing my head in over these Ubuntu issues. Many of the issues I have encountered are reported already on forums, and most of them without any real solutions. I look forward though to getting it to work my way…pretty cool OS.

I have just one week experience of working with Ubuntu. First time I have tried something else than Windows and I have to say that Ubuntu is great. May be there are still some minor problems but it is only three years old. Now I don’t think I will go back to Windows ever. By profession I am a .net programmer so I have to use Windows at work but I am seriously thinking to migrate to Java/Php/Rails so that I can get rid of Windows for ever.

Sorry I forget to mention that now I am using Kubuntu instead of Ubuntu by installing the Kubuntu-Desktop. Kubuntu is easier for the migrants from Windows like me.

great to hear about the migration! Ubuntu is so easy and fun to use that I try to use it every day. Its the only operating system that automatically detects and uses my usb wireless adapter that I use for internet. Windows has to have drivers installed. Its decent but not automatic.
Another cool thing that ubuntu did was in the installation with the live cd, It automatically detected my windows partition but thats not all. I was using puppy linux before and because of a wireless internet problem, I wanted to install ubuntu on that partition. I was thinking that Ubuntu would not detect pupy….but it did. It gave me the option of keeping puppy and resizing the larger windows partion. It worked like a charm. grub is even working with all three partitions.
Well anyways enofe of my rant. Glad to see another person using ubuntu.

“How many of you have made the switch from Windows to Linux? And if so, have there been any regrets? ”

I’m only a recent windows-linux “refugee” (using Win temprarily to download Ubuntu). I first moved to RHEL 3 (came w/ the HD). The problem is in this regard, at least in the RHEL 3 distro, is that the only sane way to upgrade “packages” (unless you have previous experience or are willing to throw in significant time) is by connecting to RHN.

I tried upgrading manually & configuring my hardware & software in RHEL 3. It gave mixed results- even which were MUCH better than Microsoft Windows 2003. But the RHEL 3 distro DID handicap my hardware in some ways, but in others (ex: audio-video display w/ NVIDIA support)- was MUCH crisper in RHEL 3. With mplayer (which has to be downloaded manually though).

And as far as “Kernels” go RHEL 3 is pretty old. You’d have to recompile the “Kernels” (the core of ANY linux distro) which can be sometimes hair pulling. To cut through it all, make the move, but move to Ubuntu & not a RH distro, in my simple opinion. The “dependency errors” in RHEL can get on your nerves, though. That’s the way RPMs go. The -apt get alternative in Ubuntu looks A LOT saner in that regard to upgrade “packages” “libraries” so on and so forth.

With RHEL, (at least 3), to install your 3dfx, you’ll need to do a series of commands. Not so in Ubuntu. ANd RHEL’s “default” device directory never works for 3d cards > 128 MB. In Ubuntu, you can install such drivers in the GUI and just some simple commands.

The RPM (linux way of instillation) will sometimes drive you insane w/ dependency errors, something I saw much less on another comp w/ pretty much my same config. The configs were much saner.

I simply couldn’t get my DVD burner to install, despite building from binary. The instillation process for the DVD drive for DVD burning tools like XCDROAST went on very fine. But the damn thing wouldn’t start w/ DVD support installed (despite showing NO install error in the log files).

RHEL Can kind of blow that way, I much prefer Ubuntu w/a GNOME setup. Go for it…switch to Ubuntu from Win. And to get DirectX10 from Microsoft for VIsta , you’ll have to send them your comp’s info…I’d rather not…

And either ways, the digital device manager (handi cam, vid cam) list is [b]HUGE[/b] on Ubuntu- provided a semi decent 3d card (I have a GEFORCE 5500 256mb 3d card is installed w/ 1gb ram otherwise).

Yeah, probably if you’re a HARDCORE gamer, you would want to think 2x, but if you’re into developing games (game makers, game engines etc)- there’s plenty of room in Ubuntu. Get the latest 7 version man, just bit torrent it…!!

I really do wish, after seeing Ubuntu at work, I made a direct win - Ubuntu transition rather than a Win-RHEL-Win-Ubuntu transition. Arrrg, can’t wait for my Ubuntu torrent to finish downloading…!!

I have full respect for Red Hat, but quite personally, I found the whole RPM thing pretty damn hair pulling. Though Fedora & RH Linux are the same pretty much you can’t use Fedora’s RPMs w/ RHEL’s. And the choice of packages for RPMs for RHEL was quite limited. I uninstalled RHEL to install Ubuntu (for a typical 160gb HDs)..

After Ubuntu downloads, and the ISO burnt onto DVD, down goes WIN2k3…Ubuntu’s a good choice. If RHEL didn’t give me these “dependency error” this….”dependency error” that nightmare, I would’ve stuck onto it.

All the default hardware I have and the externally plugged ones are auto detected by Ubuntu. A buslink USB HD (doesn’t work in Win2k3 but works in 1998 wtf?). And Ubuntu works with other partitions well.

But as a tribute to RHEL over Windows 2k3, jar files like azureus worked really well for RHEL 3. But it works well w/ Ubuntu too but is much easier & much less error prone to install stuff. At least from what I worked with so far (Ubuntu- similar config to my comp) & RHEL 3.

And even Vista, which feels like a step backward (remembering WinME), is FAR superior to me than any brand of Linux - for everyday desktop computing (particularly desktop publishing, multimedia creation/manipulation, and gaming).

Not really. Have fun!

Hi all Ubuntu kubuntu users
I’ve been using ubuntu for on my alienware laptop now for the past 6 months its great haven’t looked backjust downloaded the kubuntu 7.10 to try it outand really like what i seen so far great system and very stable keep a copy of MS XP and OS X in Vmware for certain apps but use linux as my main stay andd been smile ever since

I decided to install ubuntu on my laptop since I really only use it for browsing the net and the occasional document that I type up.

UBUNTU ROCKS…

It does everything I need it to do and now I’m considering ditching windows on my desktop and just going with Ubuntu.

It does everything I need it to do without the aggravating problems I’d run into with windows.

I wished I’d discovered operating system years ago…