02-27-2007, 03:57 PM

Over the last few months I have used XP, Vista, and Ubuntu and then have come back home to Mac. About a year ago I sold my 12" PowerBook and got a windows laptop. That experience did not go well. The laptop was made by Acer and that led to some issues in and of itself. So on Thursday I went and got my new MBP 15" with 2 gigs of ram. I have to say it is good to be home.

02-27-2007, 04:02 PM

Welcome home Kenotic, welcome home indeed.

02-27-2007, 04:08 PM

How did you like Ubuntu?

02-27-2007, 05:01 PM

Kenotic, welcome to Mac Forums!!

02-27-2007, 05:37 PM

Glad you came home. It is good to be back, isn't it?

Good luck!

02-27-2007, 08:41 PM

Originally Posted by todd51

How did you like Ubuntu?

Ubuntu is great. It is my second choice for operating systems. If you want to try Linux I recommend it. It will grow with you from Newbie to Pro.

02-27-2007, 08:48 PM

Originally Posted by Kenotic

Ubuntu is great. It is my second choice for operating systems. If you want to try Linux I recommend it. It will grow with you from Newbie to Pro.

I second that. I spent some time with Ubuntu but the wireless driver issues caused me enough trouble to give up on it. I run it now through Parallels every now and then when I want to play. Ubuntu has brought Linux light years into the future.

02-27-2007, 08:51 PM

Originally Posted by Jonnyfive

I second that. I spent some time with Ubuntu but the wireless driver issues caused me enough trouble to give up on it. I run it now through Parallels every now and then when I want to play. Ubuntu has brought Linux light years into the future.

Wireless problems is what made me give up on it also, then I switched to Mac, I like to check out Linux every once in a while though to see how it's coming along.

02-27-2007, 09:04 PM

welcome back

02-27-2007, 09:04 PM

Ubuntu is definately my favorite Linux distro. I first tried it back when it was first released. I've run just about every release. My problem is that I get bored and want to try something else.

02-27-2007, 09:30 PM

Originally Posted by Kenotic

Over the last few months I have used XP, Vista, and Ubuntu and then have come back home to Mac. About a year ago I sold my 12" PowerBook and got a windows laptop. That experience did not go well. The laptop was made by Acer and that led to some issues in and of itself. So on Thursday I went and got my new MBP 15" with 2 gigs of ram. I have to say it is good to be home.

Welcome back - aside from Vista, I've taken the same tour and ended up on the Mac. <shudder, gets queasy feeling>Acer<shudder>... know what you mean there. I have the unfortunate responsibility of supporting about 45 <cough, blech!>Acer<ick!> TravelMate Tablet PCs.... the company, the quality of the machine and the support sucks worse than any other manufacturer I've had the misfortune of dealing with. They make Dell look saintly.

02-28-2007, 03:57 AM

Originally Posted by Kenotic

The laptop was made by Acer and that led to some issues in and of itself.

I had an Acer laptop once. I left it to charge over night as the batt was low and I woke up the net morning to notice that the thing wouldn't turn on and th motherboard had blown. Tought me a big lesson about laptop chargers.

02-28-2007, 04:55 AM

I'd say Ubuntu / Kubuntu is the most advanced operating system out there, at least that I've used, including OS X. The problem is of course there's too much open source beta software and not enough commercial software available for it. If you factor that in OS X is king.

Acer really is third rate - they just feel like they could pack up at any minute.

02-28-2007, 09:43 AM

I think distros like U/K/buntu present Linux with an identity crisis, which may be good. Many, many Linux fans *like* the tinkering aspect of Linux - you get to configure the very guts of the OS to your liking. The downside is that you *have* to do this in most cases to get everything working. This has been the Linux "aura" for a long time. Along comes Ubuntu, and more or less, everything just works. It *is* standard Linux so you can go and tinker if you want, but you don't need to. Who is the target audience? Not hard core Linux users - they want more control. It has to be the world's Microsoft users. This is an excellent open source OS that will compete head to head with Windows. So, IMHO, Ubuntu isn't "classic" Linux any more - it is Linux attempting to broaden its appeal and reach out well beyond the normal group of people who would be interested in Linux. Is this good or bad? It depends on your point of view, although anything that impacts on the Microsoft hegemony is a good thing in my opinion. Some people in the Linux community are openly worried that Ubuntu Linux takes the Linux out of Linux, hence my "identity crisis" comment above.

Personally, I prefer the smaller boutique Linux distros. My favorite is Arch Linux, a performance optimized screamer that openly bills itself as Linux for the advanced Linux user. It is hard core, classic Linux. Pretty much nothing works out of the box. You have to configure and install just about everything - hence the "for the advanced user" billing. You need to have been kicking around core Linux for a while to use Arch successfully.

But, there is a payoff. Arch is all about size and performance. You get all that Linux goodness in a screaming fast wrapper. It is small, fast and powerful. The combo of my Arch distro and my 3.0 GHz Pentium IV HT PC is the fastest computer I have ever used.

I will honestly admit that if there had been a version of iTunes for Linux and a version of Photoshop for Linux, I would have never considered moving to Mac. It was only my reliance on those programs, necessitating the ongoing need to keep Windows around that got me thinking about Macs. Get a Mac and I could get rid of Windows. Originally, I was going to get a Mac and just use it for iTunes and Photoshop, continuing to "live" day to day in Linux...

Of course then you realize that Macs are based on *nix, and you can combine the best of both worlds (free OSS and commercial softare, all in one tidy package). Then you learn about all that fabulous Mac OS X software and all the other goodies that are available. Well, the plan changed. I am really glad that I *did* consider Macs. Much as I hate to say it, since getting my Mac, my trusty old Arch Linux machine gets almost no use at all. It has been eclipsed in every way by my Mac. All part of growing up I guess! :dive:

02-28-2007, 10:48 AM

I agree with DrQuincy about Ubuntu being the most advanced OS. I also agree with mac57 in that OSX offers the best compromise. I would add that as a younger man with a lot more free time I loved "tinkering" with OSs. I remember having to replace my BIOS chip with a new one in order to load OS/2 2.0. I also messed with Slackware 1.x distros at that time. I have loaded many distros over the years but I no longer have the time to HAVE to configure every aspect of Linux. This is why I think Ubuntu is great. You have the ability to go to that level if you like but you don't have to. This also means that you can just load and use it but improve it when you have the time. The lack of an easy path to iTunes and Windows Media is the biggest downfall to Linux. The Windows Media can be done but it's not perfect.