BigBlueHat

Well, Brad and I have successfully installed and upgraded (respectively) our laptops to Ubuntu 7.10. Overall the process was satisfying. There are a good bit of “nifty” features: visual effects (better than Vista, promise), window list reordering, and a new icon set. Additional in brings better power consumption management and restricted (non-open source) driver managing.

All told we’re happy with it. As with any upgrade the process, there were issues, but we’re both up and running now, and glad we made the move. If you’ve not tried Ubuntu, download a Live CD, restart your computer with it in your CD drive, and enjoy a harmless trial of the OS. You may be very glad you did.

Here at the BigBlueHat central industrial headquarters, we make use of the operating system of champions, Ubuntu. The next release hits this month, and if you haven’t yet tried Ubuntu as a supplement/replacement for Windoze, now is the time.

I won’t list all the advantages of this Linux distribution here—you can check out their site for the goods—but I’ll mention a few favorite features:

1. ease of installing software and keeping them all up to date
2. very quick boot-up time
3. development tools aplenty
4. free (open source) programs that do all the common tasks (internet, document editing, image editing, media playback, etc.)
5. snazzy effects without being a memory hog

Take the plunge, won’t you?