I've purchased and "tried" to install/use Red Hat & SUSE in the past... Both were major disasters, on 3 separate systems (never for consistent failures either). Found Ubuntu and tried the Live CD first, worked great. Did a full installation, worked GREAT! Supported all 3 systems without any problems. The only issue I've had, and it's not a big loss to me, is it didn't support my scanner at the time and I didn't feel like jumping through hoops to try to find a solution. I've been grinding those beans for over 4 years now and won't turn back. I have 1 desktop with 32 bit WIN 7/Ubuntu, 1 laptop with 64 bit WIN 7/Ubuntu, 1 netbook (EEE) with Ubuntu, and the Frankenstein system (a desktop that is a catch-all for stuff I can't bring myself to throw out) with Ubuntu.

I've used both the graphical and traditional install methods and have no problems with either. Generally lean more towards using the graphical for the main installation, then on to the terminal for some good old "sudo" time.

Ubuntu is the best I think...

Ubuntu is all right sometimes....


But you have to admit Windows 7 is still way better than Ubuntu

Why, no.. no I don't......

I've tried a few distributions through the years and Ubuntu had been my favorite so far. Sadly, my experience with Linux has been similar to camping. I tried to see if I could "rough it" with what was available in the Linux world while missing the luxuries back at home (M$ world). I'm sure if I gave it more time and effort, I'd find all the apps & utilities I need and feel comfortable making it my primary OS, maybe even more so with things moving more and more cloud-based. With this trend, maybe my next desktop/OS will not be Windows or Linux, but rather my Android phone or tablet docked w/ a mouse/keyboard/monitor.

Here, Here!!!

Have to admit that WIN7 is by far the best OS that MS has managed to put out (at least since they abandoned DOS). Ubuntu is by far the most 'user friendly' distro, and certainly the most popular (apparent by the continually growing number of downloads each year, and by the media support, ie. - many more periodical media articles point users this direction). BUT hard as it is to admit, comparing the two OS's is really more like comparing apples and oranges. Maybe someday we'll see MS put out a product that is on more of a level of Linux, but I don't see that being anytime soon.

Microsoft is getting there. I hear MS Server 2008 is a pretty sweet server, too, for those wanting a windows based server. This is coming from sys admins. Although I prefer Centos Linux or Free BSD for web servers. Of course you have the die hards who will never admit MS is as good as Linux or MAC (Yes, MAC. Shouting in contempt).

I have to admit that I haven't tried a GUI Desktop Linux for a few years. But I wasn't really impressed back then. I was really surprised that PCLinuxOS 2007 picked up my wifi card natively. Does Ubuntu desktop?

Personally, really stoked so far by MS Windows 2008 Server R2! 2003 had certain real stability and memory issues, which I'll admit Linux did not have. But Linux has still never really nailed down the whole GUI thing, and Linux support for native 64-bit is pretty shaky. As long as money isn't an issue I always look to MS for a solution first.

Tom wrote:


Most likely, almost all flavors of Linux have come a very long way in device support over the last 24 months.

A few releases ago, no, Ubuntu wasn't very WiFi friendly. Especially toward the USB dongle variety. However, since about late 2008 early 2009, I've not had any problems with it. Even then, there were work arounds on it, but your typical Windows user wouldn't have had the patience to go through the process... The only other problem that I had, was the lack of scanner support (for my 2 scanners). There was a long list of supported scanners, but of course, I didn't have any of them .

Like I've said elsewhere (or maybe it was this thread, earlier ) I've worked in Ubuntu in both GUI mode and "traditional Linux mode", ie. the terminal. I find the GUI to be pleasing to work with, and surprisingly powerful. Generally, the only time I work in the terminal is when I am working on special installs/updates. While I consider myself to be pretty capable, and comfortable (been around since DOS x.1) I prefer to go the easier routes when able.

That's cool on the wifi issue. I suppose browser fonts have improved, as well. The last time I had a setup, the fonts looked really bad.