Ubuntu, here I come...

Over the past few days, I have been dabbling in Linux notably Ubuntu .

Ubuntu is a complete Linux-based operating system, freely available with both community and professional support. I must admit, the thought of even thinking of trying Linux again kinda scared me a bit.I had tried Mandrake, Red Hat, Fedora Core and each of them were as disappointing as the other.Trying to do things just was not fast enough for me personally and particularly with Fedora Core (cant remember which test it was exactly), I ended up losing both partition on my hard drive.Hence I gave up on Linux for a good while.About 8 months ago, Linux peeked my interest again and this time I decided to do my research before installing any odd Linux distro.Came across the Ubuntu website, liked what I read and ordered a few CD (i386 and amd64).These arrived about 6 weeks later.

I tried one of the CDs and unfortunately ended up accidentally wiping out one of my hard drives (this was entirely my own fault).Too excited I guess.Gave that up again after a while, but I have been a constant visitor to the Ubuntu forums and after reading so many good things about Ubuntu there, decided to give it another try.I carefully partitioned one of my hard drives, backed up all the necessary files I wanted to keep, downloaded a copy of the latest beta release of Ubuntu (Dapper Drake Flight 6.0.6) and proceed to installing it.

In lamest terms, the installation was the easiest I have ever come across when installing a Linux based distro.There were no hiccups of any sort and once I had followed on-screen instructions, Ubuntu was up and running in no time at all.What a difference this really makes particularly when you have to wait between 20 to 45 minutes for Windows XP to install.And I am certainly not running a slow machine either. With my fresh looking GNOME screen in front of me, it was time to start tinkering.Themes were pretty much easy to get hold of, the caramel look of Dapper Drake looks good so do the standard themes that came bundled along with it but I wanted something more pleasant.Ended up booting back into Windows and copied my background from there and used it in Ubuntu after of course after I had to configure it to use my dual monitor setup.This was very easy to setup as well.Installed VLC as well as the other packages that I know would be of use to me in Ubuntu including VMWare.Unfortunately having installed the 64-bit version of Dapper Drake, I could not install Wine so as to use so of my Windows software.But no biggie, I can wait.At the pace the Linux community is going, there is bound to be a 64-bit version soon enough.

Now the big question is:Will I fully drop Windows to go to Ubuntu??Answer is no!. not yet anyway!Mainly because of the lack of some programs (I use Dreamnweaver extensively for web development) and games as well.Yes there is Cedega and well as other windows emulators, but at this moment, they don't really support a lot of Windows applications.So suffice to say, dual-booting is more suitable for me just now.

Here is a screenshot of my current setup: