Well, Windows Vista was starting to forget with me, and I have always longed to try something else besides Windows. I downloaded Sun VirtualBox and waited 20 minutes to download the 600MB ISO image for Ubuntu, which is a free, open-source distribution of Linux. I installed Ubuntu into a guest operating system and ran it. (I also downloaded Solaris if anyone cares, but installing it was insanity - don't get it!!)
So far, it's completely blown my mind, although webpage display is kinda crappy. I was able to fully use it while Ubuntu was installing (when has an OS allowed you to do that?). The first thing I noticed is that Mozilla Firefox is the default browser with Ubuntu. Yay! I copied my Firefox profile from my Vista host and it runs okay, except plugins don't copy, so I had to download that myself.
I'm still getting used to the file system and the way it runs stuff. Instead of the usual C:/Program Files I'm used to, it's /usr/lib, and instead of C:/Users/(name) (or C:/Documents and Settings/(name) on XP), it's /home/(name). The layout isn't the best (I mean, why do I have to use the same button that shuts down my computer to change my MSN/Yahoo/etc status?).
It is laptop-friendly. Since VirtualBox virtualizes hardware, I was able to see my laptop battery's status in full-screen mode, and I could change the volume with the volume keys. Nice. Of course, just like Vista, it doesn't warn you if your battery is about to die.
It comes standard with a bunch of programs that I use a lot. I never thought Firefox, GIMP, or OpenOffice would be included in it. It comes with tons of games on it to kill time. Oh, and once you press Print Screen to save a screenshot, you don't have to paste it into an image editor - it asks you if you want to save the screenshot after pressing.
Unlike Windows Update, it doesn't nag you to shut down your computer if it installs an update. I just had to install around 120 updates since this is a fresh install and I said I would need to restart my computer for the changes to come into effect (in the VirtualBox case, restarting the VM), you can click Restart Later, and that's it.
If you have an Internet connection, it even tells you the current weather condition and temperature right next to the time. Lol!
If you have Ubuntu on a network with Windows computers, it can share files and stuff, but setting it up is insanely hard.
Enough of the eye candy - let's get on with everything else. I gave it 1000MB (1GB) of virtual RAM, and it runs faster than my host computer does, and my host has 3GB or real RAM. Even though it might be a bitch for tiny hard drives, it runs super fast. In the first day of using a Windows computer, you're going to be pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL/CTRL-SHIFT-ESC at least 3 times, but so far, I haven't had a program stop responding or freeze up the entire system.
I'd give Ubuntu an 8/10. Of course, I don't want to install it over my Vista because I'm afraid I might forget something up and I'm more of a Windows person anyway.
Oh, and I typed this entire post from within my Ubuntu VM. :P
Now, just release Blockland for Linux, and I'll be happy to install it.
Does anyone else have Ubuntu, or do you plan on trying it? Discuss.
