Well The upgrade seems to have went fine, I’m really digging the new notifications, they are so much nicer looking than the old ones…I guess I tell the hubby to back up his stuff and try to upgrade his system as well. Response times are nice.

I did have to upgrade my xfire plugin for pidgin it was causing pidgin to crash, as well as re-installing banshee which the upgrade saw fit to remove. Everything else seems peachy

Guess this means I’ll have to re-gimp my forum signature…

Can’t wait for the disc any longer (I know I’m so impatient) so I’m attempting an upgrade, files are downloading as I type. I already did my backups, and I have a separate /home so I figure if any goes sour I can always re-install 8.10.

Wish me luck! I’ll let you know how it goes….

I am so sick of reading Windows® versus Linux statistics. I don’t believe that these statistics are a fair representation of how much Linux is being used. In my opinion it’s quite difficult to get proper statistics on Linux based on sales, as most users are forced and/or choose to buy computers with Windows® installed then replace the operating system with a Linux distro of their choice. What about the bulk of users who choose to build their own computers, Those also are not counted, in the Linux sales tally. Knowing this how can any statistics based on sales alone be reporting the truth?

I myself have two computers in my home both of which came with Windows® pre-installed and now run only Ubuntu. I would love to buy a Ubuntu pre-installed system, however options are limited and the cost is slightly higher due to the fact that there are no “big” companies behind most of the Linux pre-installed computers. So my only other option to remain within my budget is purchase a no-os computer than install the distro of my choice, unfortunately that does nothing to swing purchase based statistics in favor Linux.

Some users have reported success in getting a refund on windows from companies such as Dell® But I am unsure as to how this affects the statistics. Until we have a better way of counting those who buy computers with the sole intent of placing a Linux distro on it I say stop quoting sales to us as a valid reference to how Linux is doing in the world.

I thought I would list a few of
the reason’s why I love Ubuntu. These may not work for everyone and
some may totally disagree but they are my reasons none-the-less.

1. I have become a more productive person when using my computer. Some of
   the applications that are freely available to Ubuntu users have allowed
   me to make my own personal life much more organized. I’ll Name a few

   • KMyMoney Helps me keep my checking and finances in order.

   • Gourmet has seriously helped me in the kitchen by organizing my recipes and making them easy to search through.
   • Evolution besides being a great email program also allows me to be reminded of important events at the click of a mouse. I can easily set up remindersdue to it’s great desktop integration. In my opinion it runs just as well if not better than MS Outlook plus it’s free.
   • GIMP is just simply wonderful and works very well as well as being free and already installed when I install the operating system, so I don’t have to hunt it down, every time I do a re-install, or fresh install forsomebody else.

   • Open Office is great and in my opinion works just as well if not better than MS
     Office, It also comes preinstalled in Ubuntu.

   • Tomboy is wonderful, and at this point I have no idea how I survived without
     it. I no longer have a folder with ton’s of sub folders holding all my text documents, and I never would have discovered such a great Note taking application had I not decided to give Ubuntu a try.

   • Cool free eye candy, while I don’t really use compiz-fusion to it’s fullest the fact that it’s freely available, unlike in windows where I have to pay a 3^rd party company to make desk look pretty, makes it just wonderful.

   • Wine allows me to install the few games I do play and I can run them just fine without any problems, though I do prefer to use Wine Doors as it makes it simple for me to install the few applications I do use wine for.

   • Play On Linux has worked flawlessly every time I needed to install Guild Wars.

   • Everything I have installed on my computer is free and freely available, No more searching nefarious websites for cracks and/or keygens this alone makes it priceless to me. These are just a few of the programs I use frequently and while I’m aware that some of these programs also run on windows, why bother going through the process off installing windows then spending 2 days to get it all installed on my system and customized? With Ubuntu I don’t have to do that, if it’s not Installed by default, then all I need do is search the repository for it or look on GetDeb.net

2. Being able to install My Copy of Ubuntu on any computer in the house without fear of repercussion from “The Man”. Is a big plus for me.

3. The friendly and helpful Ubuntu community is awesome as a matter of fact I think I’m addicted to the forums..lol.

4. A month ago my parents came for a visit, my mother brought her digital camera with her, and after a day of sight seeing and snapping photo’s she wanted to see the pictures, and for me to take my pick of the ones I wanted copies of. She busted out her cable and handed both it and the camera to me. I plugged it into my Ubuntu computer and instantly the camera was detected and I was immediately browsing through the photo’s and saving the ones I wanted with F-Spot. I had never used the camera on this computer before, and yet there was no “required software” installation, and no messing around with how to get it done, it just worked. F-Spot is also preinstalled on Ubuntu.

5. The fact that real everyday users are a part of building both Ubuntu and the software that is available for it, makes it quite easy to find what your looking for 90% of the time. I feel it’s because these same people want their computers to function with the same ease as you do. I also believe it’s the same reason that Firefox is such a great browser, because of the addon’s that people develop for it because they want that same functionality for their browsing experience. It is this collaboration of people that makes it such a great thing. I understand in some manners and in some situations it can be a downfall but for the most part I believe for Ubuntu and most open source software it has turned out to be a pretty
   positive and powerful thing.

6. I love the way I can make my computer be mine. What I mean by this is that if do or don’t want something to run on startup then all I have to do is configure it that way. There is nothing about my computer that isn’t setup in a way which I want it to be. As an example, one little tiny thing that always annoyed me on windows was the taskbar clock. Why can’t it be configured to show the full date and time (ie Day of Week, MM/DD/YY)? Yes I am aware that there is software available that can change it so that it does this but in my opinion it’s pure stupidity that I can’t have that option already available to me in an operating system which I’ve paid upwards of $100.00 for. It’s obviously not that hard to do or there wouldn’t be software available which adds this function to windows. In Ubuntu I have been able to not only show the full date and time, but I can also completely customize the manner in which it’s laid out.

7. Ubuntu does not take me more than a few hours to get installed and completely configured in the manner in which I choose, I only have to reboot my system twice from start to finish during a fresh installation. Once after the intial updates and once after installing my Nvidia drivers. In contrast, when I install windows, I have to restart my computer numerous times (far too many to count) after a driver installation, after software installation, or for some other absurd reason. This has always annoyed me to no end. It takes me approximately 1-2 days to have a windows system setup in what I would consider working order. This includes installing all the drivers, updates, anti-virus, anti-spyware, and software. It’s ridiculous that it should take this long to set up an operating system and in the year 2008 it should be completely unacceptable to pretty much everyone. Don’t get me wrong I’m no fanboi, I still dual-boot with vista for my own reasons which I won’t go into here because that is not what this particular post is about.

8. I don’t have to concern myself with running any anti virus or anti-spyware programs on my system it’s just not a problem in Ubuntu.

9. Memory seems to be used more effieciently on Ubuntu, You would think having a quadcore with 2gb’s of ram would run vista just fine but even so there I times where I have suffered with slow downs or freezes. However My computer sings on ubuntu I have never had a freeze or a slow down of any kind, not even on the older computer which came originally with windows xp media center, the speed difference is quite noticable.

10. The fact that I feel free to have my system in any manner I see fit without fear of repercussion is priceless to me, and I can only hope that others will find the the same appreciation for that feeling that I have for it is one that can not be replicated.

These are the reasons I love Ubuntu and why I use it. I hope that in some small way I may have enlightened you the reader to the many good points of this particular operating system.