First I have to get something out of the way here. Yayyy for Paris "The Tramp" Hilton to get jail time and actually have to do it. How sick are we of these spoiled rotten rich celebrities getting off with literally murder and doing no time. Now if only the courts could do the same for white collar crime, things would be much more fair in the US.
Now that it's off my chest, back to my original blog topic.
I recently made the switch from Windows XP/Vista to Ubuntu Linux and I'd like to walk all of you through how easily this was done, and how extremely happy I really am with this switch.
First the reason for the switch: If any of you have tried Vista yet, then I probably don't need to tell you it's a resource heavy, piece of shit. You need to buy a high end computer to run the damn thing and even then it's slow, clumsy, and STILL filled with security holes. Not to mention the ton of spam, viruses, hacks, trojans, malware, worms, spyware, etc. I had had enough and decided to see what all of the Linux hype was about.
I tentatively downloaded and installed the Ubuntu 6.0 Live CD and tried it out. I was messing around with the installed software and came across one particular program that just absolutely blew my mind: AmoroK.
AmoroK is a music jukebox type of application, but is far off the best I have ever had the pleasure to use. Not only will it show compatible artists and songs (as well as rate them), it will also provide you album covers, search for the lyrics, give you the artists wikipedia information, play and record your Last.fm song information, and a zillion other things. 10/10.
Then I started finding other programs and applications that were just far better than there Windows counterparts. It was then that I saw a youtube video for Beryl/Compiz. These are desktop effects that are encorporated now by default in the new 7.04 Feisty Fawn Ubuntu distribution, and it absolutely BLEW my mind.
Here is the link: Beryl
After this I installed it as a dual boot with my Windows XP and started playing with it. I began Themeing the Desktop and such, and that was so easy and cool, that there was another high score for Ubuntu. Once I had my complete Desktop the way I wanted with all the sweet 3D backgrounds, desklets, and effects going I was content.
I then found a way to run my Windows XP through VirtualBox (VMWare type app (only I found it much better)) I decided to take the leap and create just the Ubuntu install with Winxp in a virtual window. I very very rarely use Windows now.
One of the things that I initially found daunting was the command line options (although really you do not need to use this, there are gui icons for everything) I found that installing applications were a joke, here's an example of my entry that installs everything I need:
sudo apt-get install mozilla-thunderbird gftp kftpgrabber nfs-common vlc par2 unrar xmms xmms-mad xmms-skins sun-java5-plugin sun-java5-bin ubuntu-restricted-extras libk3b2-mp3 ntfs-config libxine-extracodecs xine-ui mplayer mplayer-skins kubuntu-desktop xubuntu-desktop azureus klibido
Now this may look complex, but actually all it consists of is a listing of the apps and such that I want to install in one line. The command itself is simply: sudo apt-get install (then just start listing the applications you want to install) and BOOM....it installs them. No hunting all of the damn web for applications then having to download, then install, then delete the containers. No spyware added to the installs to support the distribution...easy as pie.
If you don't like using the command line (which you will after you get used to the idea) you can use the Synaptic Package Manager, which is a one stop shop for so many applications it's hard to believe you can't find something that you are looking for.
Here are a few basic screenshots of my desktop, you can't see all of the effects, but it's an idea:
This is the basic desktop cube, I actually have 3D effects enabled and I changed my background to black to make the picture come out better.
And this is the desktop, again without any of the effects for better picture taking.Now the greatest part of all: It's all FREE...as in doesn't cost you a penny. It is all open source software. No spyware, no viruses, no need for AV/Firewall running in the background, easy as hell to use, much prettier and more customizable than Windows, more powerful, and hella faster.
I HIGHLY recommend that if you have not tried Linux to give it a go...the Community at http://ubuntuforums.org are amazing. If you have questions or ran into a problem there are thousands of people ready and willing to help out.
www.ubuntu.com give it a go: There are two flavors, Kubuntu and Ubuntu (KDE/Gnome user interface respectively) If you don't know the difference between the Desktops, then go with Ubuntu initially.
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