Ubuntu Linux

I'm playing around with Ubuntu on the desktop I built this week. Installation went very smoothly, except for the fact that there were no drivers for my network adapter. I did some searching, and apparently the latest version of Ubuntu has support for it. I was using the 6.10 release, and am going to try the 7.04 beta. I should probably hold off until April 19th, when the final version of 7.04 is released, but I don't want to wait.

I was very impressed with what I've seen so far. For the vast majority of computer users, Linux really appears to be sufficient. You can get the job done, whether it's photo editing, document production, or web surfing and email, with 100% free software. I'll be the first to admit that I don't understand the economics of it, but I'm not going to argue with free.

The UI appears to be very polished, and very customizable. You really can lay it out however you'd like. It has some neat things integrated already, similar to the Spaces program Apple is planning to include in the next version of OS X. I haven't messed with it yet, but apparently the Beryl/Compiz project has graphical improvements to the UI that are far ahead of the equivalent Vista and OS X effects.

The really cool thing that I'd like to see in other operating systems, but probably won't any time soon, is an APT-get database type functionality. This way, you can select which programs you'd like to install from a huge list, and it does so automatically, along with any prerequisite software. Also, your OS automatically updates not only itself, but also almost any program you install. I've wondered for years why other operating systems don't have this kind of functionality. When I do a Software Update on my Macs, I'd like it to update all of my software, not just my Apple software. Same goes for Windows and Microsoft software.

I'm just under an hour away from competing my Ubuntu installation image download. I'll report back to see if I have any network card progress.