Well... leave it to a non geek to crash Ubuntu in less than five minutes playing solitaire. I got the blinking black screen of death (BBSOD) and everything!!! Surely this ups my geek ranking!
First things first. I put in the Ubuntu live cd and then rebooted my computer to trigger the computer to boot from the cd. So far so good. I followed the on screen prompts and chose not to install anything, as I wanted to take a look around first.
At first glance, the setup looks remarkably like Windows, so I felt more comfortable. There are a few features that I like about Ubuntu, such as "hover music" in that when you hover over a music file, it actually plays while you hover your mouse cursor over the file. Thus making it much easier to determine if that music file is the one you want without actually opening the file. I really like "hover music." (I don't know if that's what you'd call it.. but I like the term "hover music.")
Ubuntu allows for multiple desktops. That means that I can really organize what programs I access, putting most common business programs on a business desktop.. or perhaps all my entertainment files on an assorted media desktop.
The programs that come with Ubuntu are also very useful and have Windows equivalents. For example.. Gimp is the Linux version of Photoshop. OpenOffice.org is the Linux version of Microsoft Office. Pidgin for instant messaging. Pretty much everything I need to do in Windows, I have the ability to do in Linux, with the Linux versions being on par with the Windows equivalents.
Next comes the games folder. I don't usually play games, but it's worth a look to see what's there. My goodness. The solitaire game folder alone, is HUGE! I think there must be 100+ versions of solitaire. Oh boy... time to try one out. I chose AisleRiot. Things were going well... I was having fun.. and then it happened!!!! My worst fear... the screen went blank.. then started blinking between black... and darker black! Crap.. I've fried it all.. I've ruined my new computer.. I never should have done this.. I hate Linux!!! Time to get out the rollin pin and start bashing the techie that said nothing would go wrong!!!
Ok.. please note... no techies were actually harmed and the computer was not fried or ruined. What happened was there was a "traffic jam" in the information being sent to the computer from the cd. Sort of similar to those error messages from Windows "This program has encountered a problem and needs to close." resulting sometimes in the Blue Screen of Death. Linux does the same thing without having the entire system crash. Simply pressing enter diagnosed the problem, shut down that program, and reloaded the desktop, and I was good to go. No system restarts, no holding in the power button to reboot.
Overall I am pleased with Ubuntu, and have learned that even if errors happen, they are easier to fix because of the way Linux designs programs to work independently of each other.
My next step is to partition my computer and install Ubuntu. Thus when I boot up my computer, I will be able to choose between my various operating systems (Windows Vista, Windows 7RC, and Ubuntu).
This post can be read at the Simply Tux Forum.
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