New Linux User
Yep, I have become a new user of Ubuntu Linux!
How did this strange phenomenon happen?
Well, one of the hard drives in my laptop became faulty and in the process Windows Vista self-destructed. In an effort to rescue some of the data on the hard drive I ran Ubuntu from a Live CD. I was too new to the Linux environment to be able to mount the internal drives on my laptop and as the laptop was still under warranty I decided not to mess around with it too much until it had been repaired.
However, I was still without a working operating system and it was going to take the guys a few days to pick up the machine to repair it so I decided to install Ubuntu on an external hard drive so I would at least be able to access my email and my websites.
The installation process went flawlessly and my laptop connected to the internet immediately. It was rather strange at first but similar enough to Windows to pose no real problems. Firefox and an email client were already installed so less than thirty minutes later I was connected to the internet and retrieving my emails.
When the guys came to collect my laptop for repair I was rather sad to lose Ubuntu so I dug out my old desktop PC and installed Ubuntu onto it, selecting the option to dual boot with Windows XP and Ubuntu. Once again, the installation process was flawless except this time it did not recognise my USB wireless adapter. Ubuntu is the most popular Linux distro so online support is very easy to find and with the help of the Ubuntu forums I managed to find instructions to set up my wireless adapter.
Being of an inquisitive nature I also had to try out Fedora and Mandriva. However, I am very impressed with Ubuntu and, due to its popularity and hence vast wealth on knowledge on the internet, I decided to stick with it.
At the moment I am in the process of setting up a PHP/MySQL testing environment and finding equivalent Linux substitutes for my Windows programs. The main Windows programs I miss are Photoshop and Dreamweaver. Ubuntu comes with Gimp (a Photoshop substitute) pre-installed but I’ve been using Photoshop for so long that Gimp seems a bit awkward at the moment. I’ve looked at various programs to replace Dreamweaver. Bluefish and Netbeans seem to be the closest I have found but it is too soon to say whether either of them will replace Dreamweaver. I have heard that both Photoshop and Dreamweaver will run under Wine but I have not tried this yet. At the moment I am still exploring the native programs and playing with the desktop and other special effects!
If you are also wondering about installing Ubuntu, I would advise you to go ahead and give it a try. I am trying to convince P that he should replace Vista on his 1GB laptop with Ubuntu but, while he is interested, he is still a little hestitant to take the plunge. Maybe one day!