Ubuntu is now dusty
Way back in March I installed Ubuntu onto a spare computer, mostly to play around with it, partly because I was intending on using it for a PVR. The computer was up and running on my [only] monitor for about two days, then I needed to access files on my Windows computer.
Since that day, the computer has not been booted up, four and a half months later. I just can’t find a convincing reason to switch totally and my efforts for building a standalone PVR have been put on hold because my Internet connection is garbage at my home.
As it stands, I still really like the operating system and think it has a place, just not in my home right now. I will be pulling the hard drive from that computer and installing it as a slave on my main Windows computer to use as a secondary place to store files and will re-explore PVR options when I have a more stable connection to the internet.
On a brighter note, my work is slowly upgrading some of our workstation computers; the older units in some case are 7+ years old and just can’t function in productive ways for our company anymore. Some of these older units are running Pentium II and Pentium III processors, 256mb of RAM and 20GB hard drives, nothing to be proud of. The company does have a need to run a simple terminal piece of software and browse the internet in certain locations of the store, this is where Ubuntu comes into play. I will be installing Ubuntu on at least one computer sometime in the next month for the sole purpose of running terminal software and browsing the Internet. Ubuntu tends to run faster than Windows based operating systems, like Windows 2000, on these older pieces of hardware. This will hopefully get my fingers using the operating system more frequently and get me to possibly consider dual booting my home machine.
I’m interested in feedback from anyone who has either:
- Made the switch from Windows to Ubuntu (or other distro of Linux)
- Is in the process of switching
- Tried to switch and went back to Windows
Please share any speed bumps, hassles, workarounds, etc. that you have dealt with in your decision making process and final switch.
Comments
go die big city
The main reason for me using mostly Windows is simply Adobe and that 3D acceleration in Ubuntu is really crappy (I even downloaded the ATI drivers and compiled them, but somehow it didn’t work out the way I wanted it)
But there are things I really love. For example Amarok is great and the Synaptic Package Manager is so sweetly simple and one of my favourite time wasters “Wanda the fish and fortuneteller”.
Well I personally couldn’t live without Windows, but it is nice to have an alternative on your harddrive.