Speaking in Ubuntu

Well, the fun just never stops in this technology stuff, eh? I am messing around with Linux with the thought that I might use it for a used laptop I'm getting soon. In this case, the user doesn't have the Windows recovery disks and rather than go through all the trials of re-loading bloatware, I am actually considering using an Open Source Operating System like Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/)

Ubuntu is a "flavor" of Linux, which is an open source programming language. Like "Madge" in the Palmolive commercials ("You're soaking in it!"), I'm actually "writing in it." I'm writing this blog on a "Live CD" copy of linux on my Windows XP desktop. It's really crazy, but only if you're a geek like me.

So why open source you ask? Well, for starters, the price is right. Open Source code is free and supported by it's user base. If you're good and you've built an app for Linux, you can submit it to the community for reaction, testing and feedback. On an obtuse kind of comparison, it's like eating from local grown produce instead of the stuff at Pick N Save that was trucked to the area at great expense and cost to the environment. Sorta like that, yeah.

My thoughts on putting it on a used laptop are, that I'm looking to use the laptop for:

Web surfing
Web Mail
Word (Openoffice.org) for writing.

For doing that, I don't think I need much more than Ubuntu can give me. Then, I won't be hounded for the latest windows update, befuddled by the newest windows error message and bored while windows boots up after every update.

My apprehensions are that it's all new and I am especially worried about how the hardware drivers will react to the new OS. I think there's enough online help to work through all of it, but I have to be prepared by doing my homework ahead of time. (My daughter thinks "Ubuntu" is a great word to repeat over and over. I tend to agree. Sounds like a Somalian sect or something.)

If anyone out there has any experience with Linux or Ubuntu, please give me a holler. I'd love to hear your stories of joy or horror.

Back to my research. Back soon, with a story or two of my own.

Blogging off in (Ubuntu)...

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