Ubuntu Linux

I think most of the people are now tired of using Microsoft products specially their lousy OS and IE. That's why everybody jumps into other products when they get a chance. A very good example is FireFox. I think now it's the turn of OS. Linux is there for some time but is still limited to enthusiasts and Pros. I could remember how I installed Linux in my 486 in 1999. It took more than a week to get the job done compiling some of the drivers manually. The monitor gave me the greatest headache since the X windows system didn't recognize it. I couldn't play around much since my knowledge was limited and the applications were rare. After that, I have used random versions of RedHat Linux in couple of times but it didn't hit the spot.

I heard about Ubuntu Linux by accident when I was searching for Debian Linux. I read a couple of reviews about Ubuntu and thought of giving it a try. So I downloaded the version 5.04 (Hoary Hedgehog) and installed it in my home PC which already has two windows versions; Windows XP (for gaming) and Windows 2003 Server (for development). The installation process was quiet and took around 30 minutes. It recognized all my hardware including AC97 surround sound card, GeForce 440MX video card and on board LAN which was a bit surprise.

Ubuntu really impressed me. It's very very simple. Good for a beginner who is shifting towards Linux from Windows. This installation comes with several applications like Open Office 1.1, several games, multimedia applications and networking tools. But it didn't recognize my existing NTFS partitions which was sad. I had to mount them manually and are read only which is a downfall. Overall, I am happy about Ubuntu and waiting to see the next stable version 5.10 (BreezyBadger) in October.