Ubuntu
A short note today to talk about a great option to Windows. An open source operating system called Linux, first created by Linus Torvalds, has been around for several years now, but until lately, it has been very difficult for the average user to install. With the advent of Ubuntu, however, it is now an easy graphical interface that makes the process fairly painless. Some may need assistance actually having an install CD made for them, but once this is done, the rest follows naturally.
I even took the plunge to see how easy this really was, and created a live CD for my own system. I found that it ran very smoothly, and powerfully, and I was happy with the way that it worked with everything naturally without me having to try to find drivers and the like. Once I knew that it was really simple, I took the acid test. I installed it to an older system that I had, and gave it to my in-laws. Now, these are wonderful, loving people, but they don't know about computing at all, so I wanted to see how truly simple it was. I am happy to report that there have been very few problems.
1. The updating for the system has been a bit confusing for them, so I have taken that in hand myself, and since then things run smoothly. I like how the system will allow you to set it so that it will download updates automatically, but it will ask for the system password before installing any updates. Sometimes they will forget their password, but this does seem to be running ok.
2. Ubuntu makes creating shortcuts so easy that they have created many of them inadvertantly. Part of my maintenance of their system is a regular trashing of extraneous icons.
Can you believe it? Only two main issues for beginning computer users! The system runs stably, with no crashes other than when they opened so many instances of mahjong and freecell the system ran out of resources. Since then though, it has pretty much run two months with no system reboot or blue screen of death. This was undreamed of in the world of Win98 in which they used to live. If you are still living in the days of Windows Me or previous, are not using any special devices that require Windows, I highly recommend Ubuntu. The other people that I recommend Ubuntu for are those who have been caught in Windows Genuine Advantage. If you know anyone with this problem, and they aren't ready to spend the money to really pay off Bill to get Windows, this is a great alternative.
Visit Ubuntu today, and check out Extremetech's great review.
I even took the plunge to see how easy this really was, and created a live CD for my own system. I found that it ran very smoothly, and powerfully, and I was happy with the way that it worked with everything naturally without me having to try to find drivers and the like. Once I knew that it was really simple, I took the acid test. I installed it to an older system that I had, and gave it to my in-laws. Now, these are wonderful, loving people, but they don't know about computing at all, so I wanted to see how truly simple it was. I am happy to report that there have been very few problems.
1. The updating for the system has been a bit confusing for them, so I have taken that in hand myself, and since then things run smoothly. I like how the system will allow you to set it so that it will download updates automatically, but it will ask for the system password before installing any updates. Sometimes they will forget their password, but this does seem to be running ok.
2. Ubuntu makes creating shortcuts so easy that they have created many of them inadvertantly. Part of my maintenance of their system is a regular trashing of extraneous icons.
Can you believe it? Only two main issues for beginning computer users! The system runs stably, with no crashes other than when they opened so many instances of mahjong and freecell the system ran out of resources. Since then though, it has pretty much run two months with no system reboot or blue screen of death. This was undreamed of in the world of Win98 in which they used to live. If you are still living in the days of Windows Me or previous, are not using any special devices that require Windows, I highly recommend Ubuntu. The other people that I recommend Ubuntu for are those who have been caught in Windows Genuine Advantage. If you know anyone with this problem, and they aren't ready to spend the money to really pay off Bill to get Windows, this is a great alternative.
Visit Ubuntu today, and check out Extremetech's great review.
Comments
Post a Comment