The time has finally come for me to retire my reliance on Windows. Not that Windows is a bad operating system--I've used it since Windows 3.1--and every iteration in between (with the exception of not using Windows NT until the 4.0 version. In between then and now, I've also tried some other, commercial, non-Microsoft OSes along the way. The first was OS/2 version 3.0. Personally I liked OS/2. The day I decided to upgrade my computer, I went to Best Buy in my hometown and bought OS/2 Warp 4.0. While in the parking lot, I changed my mind and was able to return it (seeing that it had not been opened) and I exchanged it for the brand new Windows 95. I never regretted that decision.
Later, at the end of the 20th century, I bought an operating system called "BeOS." It was made with modern computers in mind. Since it was new, it did not need to be backward compatible with previous versions.
Originally the folks at BeOS made their operating system to be compatible with the Macintosh Power-PC architecture. Until a few years ago, I never owned a Mac, so I got the Intel-compatible version of BeOS (though I've always built my computers with AMD processors).
BeOS was technologically superior to any other OS out there--it just never got the market share. There was an office suite that was native to it--but it was too expensive for most enthusiasts. At that time, Linux wasn't ready for prime time. I purchased both the commercial versions of Red Hat Desktop and a German distribution called SUSE.
Fast-forward 12 years.
Linux has come a long way. I have tried many different distributions, and the one that I find that I like the best is called “Ultimate Edition 2.7.”
It is based upon the latest version of Ubuntu and it is very polished and very mature. Everything just seems to work in it.
One frustration that I have had with my laptop is with distributions based upon Linux distros that use the Red Hat Pack Manager solution for software installation.
I have tried Fedora (open source desktop project of Red Hat), Mandriva, and OpenSuse, and none of them work with my wireless network card. Everything appears to work, but no packets are exchanged between my router and my computer. I can even ping websites, but cannot get the web pages to load. I even opened my home network entirely and it still would not work.
But distributions based up the Debian .deb package management system appear to work flawlessly.
So far I have had zero trouble with making the switch to Linux. The only thing I haven't been able to get working is DVD ripping. So for now Windows Vista is on my desktop and DVDShrink & DVDDecrypter are working well over there. If I can get open source software working to do this, I think my desktop may get an Open-Suse makeover.
I'm so confident this time that I sold my copy of Windows 7 Ultimate on eBay.
Wish me luck.
