-or- thoroughly and pleasantly surprised
So our old desktop box has been acting very buggy lately. I knew it was time to do a clean format, and I was tired of old Windows98 on that machine, so I decided to give Linux a try. I was apprehensive, but thought it could be fun to try a little bit.
I was very, very surprised.
I have heard both the Linux fanatics and the naysayers, and generally sided with the naysayers. Nevertheless, having now given Linux a fair try I am quite impressed. I originally thought I would try Mepis, since I had used the live CD before and thought it looked nice. But I thought I would give Ubuntu a try as well. Downloaded the live CD and ran it. I was very impressed, so I went ahead and did a clean format and install on the old box.
It really rocks. Everything has worked without a hitch so far, with one exception: my Lexmark printer. That is having problems, but apparently this is a pretty well known issue with Lexmark and their closed-source drivers. I tried a method found over at the Ubuntu forums, but didn't work yet. However, not a big deal as I can always use another computer to print (and this desktop box will likely be getting replaced soon).
Gnome looks great, and it is really amazing the number of programs the Linux comes loaded with. I had no problem updating things to the most recent version, and here I am, blogging in Firefox. I can finally see how for some people, Linux is a very real, very plausible alternative to forking over big bucks for an OS.
Pretty cool.
