Linux revisited

A little while ago, I posted about my initial experience of using Ubuntu on an old box here at home. It worked remarkable well straight off the CD, and it didn't take long for me to get used to it and appreciate the capabilities of this free operating system.

After a while though, I started to recall some of things that made me drift away from Linux a few years ago, when I tried it then in the form of Red Hat and Mandrake. Any long term user of Windows who has strayed into Linux will know what I mean. Things like some function or application not working quite the way it did last time, because something else has changed a configuration file somewhere, and upset the balance of the universe. If it was Windows, it would crash, where as Linux will actually still work, but not quite as you want, and the fix is not always obvious so you end up just putting up with it. Later, you might decide to try a cool new window manager that you've read about, but then decide you don't like it, so you switch back, and again, the system doesn't quite work the way it did before. Yes, it runs without errors, but it isn't quite as smooth as before, or your preferences aren't saved between sessions, or similar.

Windows might not be as reliable as one would like, and security can be an issue, but if anything, it is consistent, and Linux still doesn't quite live up to that, yet...

It's getting much better than before though, and I am sticking with it this time.

I recently installed the latest Ubuntu on my Lenovo IdeaPad, and it runs beautifully. I also removed Ubuntu on the old box at home and replaced it with the Xfce community edition of Linux Mint, and it runs smooth as silk. For those cats who curiosity is getting the better of them, or you have tried Linux before and moved back to Windows, now is a good time to try again.

Is Linux better than Windows? I'd still say no overall.

But Windows isn't better than Linux either. They are both...different.