Replacing Windows with Ubuntu
I have been using Gnu/Linux since June 1995. That is just a year after Linux 1.0 was released and less than four years after Linux was announced by Linus Torvalds. Coming from the Unix-centric world of Chalmers University of Technology, it was natural for me to choose Slackware, with its aim for being as Unix like as possible, as my first Linux distribution. This was the hard core days of Linux. I compiled the kernel myself, fiddled with the X11 configurations for hours and so on. So maybe I can call myself a veteran user. (Please notice the emphasis on user. I am not a Linux expert.)
But the brutal reality of being an IT consultant in the Windows land forced me to replace Linux on my work computer with the dreadful Windows for Workgroups 3.11. It was like trading a new Volvo (safe and comfortable) for an old Trabant (insecure and distressing). Fortunately, it could not be worse. With every new release of Windows I came more and more to terms with the bloatware from Redmond. Windows NT 4.0 I found acceptable; Windows 2000 I found quite good; and Windows XP I found actually cozy.
A key factor for my reluctant embracement of Windows was the emerge of high quality free and open source software (or just FOSS) on the Windows platform. I was very happy to replace MS Office with OpenOffice.org, Outlook Express with Thunderbird, Internet Explorer with Firefox and JBuilder with Eclipse. Other FOSS tools which I use and have enjoyed on Windows includes Apache, MySQL, PHP, Notepad++, 7z, FileZilla, PuTTY and GnuWin32.
From time to time I have tried to revert to Linux as my primary platform. I have tried Debian, Gentoo, SuSE, Red Hat and many others distributions just to realize every time that I have become too spoiled with the coziness of Windows. But then Ubuntu came along. It was love at the first sight.
I have been using Ubuntu from the very first release (Warty Warthog) in October 2004. It has lived next to Windows on my computers. But after almost three years of dual booting, I decided to take the big leap, and let go of Windows. So for a couple of days ago, I removed the Windows partition on my hard disks and installed a fresh copy of Ubuntu on my laptop, desktop computer and file- an printer sharing server at home. It is scary — and yet a wonderful feeling of liberation.
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