A number of months ago (about 8 months ago to be precise) I started writing an article on Linux and why I just couldn’t get used to it.
This is not the first time I’ve tried Linux. It’s not the second, or the third. It’s not even the fourth, fifth or sixth time I’ve tried an install of Linux in an effort to love it and join the ranks of evangelical Linux lovers. To be perfectly honest I have lost count, but I would imagine that this latest install of Linux (Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) is between the tenth and fifteenth install.
You might imagine that I’d have got pretty good at working with this alternative operating system, that somehow over the years I’d have worked out it’s nuances, found the shortcuts and the programs I like and be ready to settle down with Linux in anti Microsoft matrimony. I mean, what’s the big hold up? Why is it so difficult?
I can’t slate Linux, I just can’t. It is fantastic. For something that you don’t have to pay for (with anything other than time) it’s a marvel. What’s even better is that I’ve seen it get better with time. A LOT better, whereas in the Redmond camp I’ve seen it get… well… bigger? Microsoft has always worked in a certain way. Single user, single workspace, same forms engine etc, good HAL etc but linux has grown. I mean 10 years ago I remember wrestling with a 4 CD install of Slackware on an old 486 DX 4×100 and never even managing to get it to install (alright, in hindsight Slackware was NOT a good place to start!). My first working install was with Mandrake (now Mandriva) and then Red Hat (of which the “Open” part became Fedora Core). I’ve also tried Puppy Linux, DSL (Damn Small Linux) and some other more obscure distributions with equally as stupid names. So now I’m sitting here writing this on Ubuntu 9.04 (oddly it’s just updating itself to Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) and it’s doing a pretty good job!
There’s not a great deal I need out of an Operating System. In fact, the Operating System is rarely the problem for most users (me included). You don’t really spend al that much time interfacing directly with the Operating System, (and time that you do is not really “productive” time). Let’s be honest, we want to spend most of our time working with programs… actually doing things.
….
Well what do you know?! A few weeks later I took the plunge one last time and put 9.04 on a 40gig laptop drive and went to Linux. Eight months later and I’m sitting here typing this on Ubuntu 10.04 and absolutely in love with Linux. OK, so I’m not going to be one of those evangelical Linux to$$ers who tells you that everyone should use it, you do have to have a certain amount of techie in you, but if you’re will to undergo the small learning curve, I warrant that you wont turn back. I struggled at first because the thought kept cropping up “why am I doing this? I know exactly how to do this in Windows, and I can always VBA it if I need something new”. Most of the time though I realised that I wasn’t born with an understanding of Windows, I had to earn it and that’s just the same route I’m going to have to take with Linux.
There’ll be some more posts coming to tell you about some of the tools I’ve selected to help make the switch easier (and yes, sometimes I fire up a VirtualBox console with XP in it!) but really, I’m still having a great time!
Give it a shot. Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) is available here… completely free and a lot of fun.
Matt
Matt writes this blog and doesn't often have much useful to say. Matt apologizes for the rather random mix of geek, tech, thoughts, rants and information that end up in this cyber bits-n-bobs box.
Matt Likes to talk about himself in the third person