I just moved cold turkey from Windows XP to Ubuntu. So far it's been fantastic, I can't
believe how intuitive and easy to use this is!

For a long time I was in the same boat as most Windows users. I was intimidated thinking that Linux was the same as in the days of "Redhat" when there was no graphic installers for programs and everything had to be done by command prompt, like the days of DOS. That was mistake #1. The Add/Remove programs in Ubuntu is far superior to windows.

The other factor for me was my aging hardware. My current laptop is a Dell XPS 9300 that I bought three years ago. It has a decent CPU, 2 gigs of RAM and 256 MB video.

On Windows, every 6-12 months I had to wipe everything away and start over again. My machine would just get slower and slower. I just got tired of doing this.

Yesterday I backed everything up on my external hard drive and wiped the slate clean with the latest version of Ubuntu.

I'm so impressed so far. This OS comes with almost everything I use anyway; Firefox, Open Office and a huge range of graphics/sound editing (Audacity, Gimp, etc.). The only thing I needed to install was Thunderbird and Skype. Doing this was so easy, just clicking on the menu, Add/Remove programs, and you can type in any application you want to download, click the checkbox and it downloads/installs automatically.

For quite some time my ultimate goal was to free myself of Microsoft programs all-together. I was thinking for years, some day, Linux will be user friendly and easy to use enough where I won't need Windows at all. I am 99% sure that day for me has arrived!

The only challenge I've had so far is to figure out how to read/write from my Maxtor External hard drive. It was actually not too hard. I just had to download NTFS-3 for Linux and boom, I was back in action.

Now I just have to figure out how to import my thunderbird e-mail :-)

If anyone else here is running Ubuntu (Chip, Frank, where you guys at?) I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences!:-)
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I've been considering this to give the old desktop that hasn't been used in months a boost in speed, glad to hear it worked out for you.
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I have an ubuntu linux box that I use as a secondary backup for digital photos and as a burn box for when I need to copy a bunch of cd's. I love it. Never had any problems with linux stability. The one time my linux box died was because the actual HDD failed. At least it was under warranty and backed up.
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I ran Ubuntu on an older Dell laptop for a while as my man-cave computer until it was replaced by a Mac Mini. It is a great OS but I always had problems with drivers for the wireless card. Not really a Linux issue but a PITA none the less.

The Dell ran much faster and smoother with Ubuntu than XP.
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This was one of my main concerns as well. I've always been under the impression that driver support was the biggest problem of Linux based OS's. So far, everything has been smooth.

I'm still wondering what the best way to manage multiple wireless connections will be. I'm going to try to find a better wireless connection manager for Ubuntu. Any suggestions?

I have a stock Intell wireless card in my Dell.
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Just installed KWifi Connection Manager. It seems very easy to use and is specifically written for Ubuntu and Debian based Linux OS's.
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I have tried the last 3 or 4 Ubuntu versions but prefer PCLOS. I have only had to use ndiswrapper on one, out of a dozen portables I've installed PCLOS 2007 on. Generally it picks up the card and finds the connection, just type in the PW if there is one and roll.
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Ubuntu is easy. PClinux is very good. But I like Sabayon the best. The 3.5 release was most excellent. I am pumped to hear about PClinux 2009 though. PClinux 2007 was my fav OS for a long while.
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+1

Sabayon is an excellent distro ... I prefer it to a number of higher profile distros like Suse and Fedora.
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Thanks for the great posts! This might be my first step in becoming a linux junky?
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I was thinking of installing Linux on an old Dimension 4300S. I hadn't made up my mind which distro to run with, though. Still doing that research, but I'm glad to hear it went well for you.
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I've been an ubuntu user for years. It's great. However, if you need to share MS office documents with regular windows users, you will run in to the limitations of open office real quick. That's the main reason that I use Vista in my consulting (my main work products are documents). Not an ubuntu limitation, but open office, which continues to get better all the time.
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there is always Apple and mac osx...... :-)
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I found the OP ironic, I have a dual boot laptop, XP and Ubuntu. In the end my main use for the ubuntu install is to fix disks that Windows chokes on, chief among those is an external Maxtor!

If you aren't married to any software (with me it's Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere, Flash), Linux, esp ubuntu is a no-brainer, free and easy and plenty of useful software available.

Glad you're getting the most out of your hardware, for free, and having fun doing it! Wish I could go all the way like that
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With a gig of RAM I run XP in a virtual machine within PCLOS. Simple to set up and runs great.
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I've been running one kind of unix or another for 10 years now. I liked SuSE better than Red Hat for RPM based distros. Slax is pretty good.
Debian distros are the best IMO. Ubutu is pretty good. Raw Debian is good, too, once you know your way around the OS. I have settled on a distro called Mepis for desktop use. It was based on Debian, then Ubuntu, and now back to Debian again. This is based on where the software repositories are maintained. A great "toolkit" distro is Backtrack.
I keep a Win98 and WinXP partition around, just in case I need to open some weird spreadsheet or Word(r) document, but I don't use them very often.
I like being in control of my OS. I don't trust Windows much for browsing.
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Welcome to Linux Tristan. I currently use Mandriva and have installed as a dual boot with XP on my step daughters machine in Oki. She likes it and uses it all the time. She has an old XP machine without much ram and a Celeron cpu. Breathed new life in to that old box. Still have Ubuntu on a couple old desktops downstairs, can't remember the last time I turned them on. PCLinux OS like Sean said is still one of the easiest distro's I've used. Linux Mint is still running on one of my other kids Gateway. Haven't used windows in a long while other than to fix for the kids that have Vista. Some day they will listen to me about being smarter on the net. OSX and Linux is all I use now. BTW isn't the Ubuntu forum a wealth of knowledge when it comes to getting things to work on Linux?
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My laptop is ubuntu only my desktop is still vista for gaming and the such.... ubuntu is great and does everything I need especially on my laptop
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Frank!!! How yens doin?

The Ubuntu forum is great!

Knoppix is pretty slick! I actually tinkered with it last week. Someone at work needed to recover some files from a dead Windows XP install and I burned it for them. I burned myself the DVD version. I was impressed that it worked instantly with all my hardware and connected to the wireless network (I'm not sure) at work with no credentials. It simply WORKED with almost no action on my part!
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I am finding new things to love about Ubuntu daily. Yesterday, I was renaming a jpg. In windows, I had to manually highlight everything behind the extension, in Ubuntu, I press F2 to rename and everything behind the file extension is highlighted by default! I just had to type in the new name and press enter. SLICK!

This is one of those things where you say, "Why didn't someone think of this earlier?" So intuitive!
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