My Experiment and Experience and My Experiments To Come

At the end of last year a friend of mine asked if I would help him switch from Windows Vista to Linux. Being that I have used Ubuntu for a year now and enjoy it and to the fact that I love it when people switch to Linux as it is a growing community of people who want their computers to actually work, I agreed to help him.

He knew I used Ubuntu and he likes what he's seen me do with my computer. He was tired of viruses and having to worry about security and his computer crashing and what not. On top of all that, he's not a rich guy (seems like everyone is if they're using any version of Windows) and loved that it's a free operating system that would suite his needs.

The Experiment

I quickly discovered after running both Ubuntu 8.10 and Ubuntu 9.10 Live CDs that we were quickly going to have a problem. Linux does just work however sometimes even with it you will run into a bit of an issue. Nothing is perfect obviously.

With 8.10 his computer would detect wireless connections in the apartment building we live in but would not play a tune for anything. No sound. None. I looked around some forums and did a bit of research and put into action some information I learned and still nothing.

With 9.10 his sound worked just fine but no Internet connection. His wireless card wasn't even being detected it seemed like. This was odd to me as 9.10 has more wireless capabilities and is known to perform better where that's concerned.

Ultimately we installed 8.10 and left it as it was as it had Internet usability. He's having his dad put Windows back on and then he's going to dual-boot and experiment with some Linux Distributions at the same time.

What Came From All This?

Well, when you hear of how “hard” it is to use Linux you should really question that like you would anything else. Linux isn't exactly “hard” to use it's just different and people will hear someone talk about a bad experience they had with it and therefore won't give it a chance.

Take a Live CD for a test drive and see for yourself if it's “hard” to use. Experiment with more than just one distribution and discover what you can/can't do with it and if it will suite your daily computing requirements or not. Ubuntu is not the only distro out there, though it's a very popular one and has a strong and growing community.

Actually as I write this I am currently running Linux Mint 8 – Helena on Live CD. It's a nice distro from what I'm seeing and it runs rather well.

With that being said I am going to make a list of distributions that I want to test and experience and see for myself how they operate. I will make an article for each one this year and explain my experience.

2010 is a new year full of great things to come and new opportunities arising. Change is everywhere so embrace it to the fullest. Do what you've never done and give it a go!
My plans for next week include searching for what distributions are out there and writing down which ones I want to test and why. My next article will have that list and the reasons why. I will also include the specs of my personal computer so you know what I'm working with before I go into all this.

Ready For Change?

What distributions have you tested and what did you particularly enjoy about each one? What's stopping you from making the switch and why would you want to switch? I would love to hear about your experience and why you switched over and compare it to my own that will happen in the near future.