Many many years ago I read an article in a science magazine that mentioned Linux. It referred to it as extremely geeky, something about making your own OS. and I read on without thinking to much about it. However, years later, out of pure boredom, I remembered it. I googled Linux and ended up trying to install Ubuntu.
I have never been geeky in any way. I was never the Windows power user and gamer that my friends were, just a stupid musician. I had never even seen anything except Windows and Macintosh, and had never heard of the words “partition”, “grub”, “kernel” and “compile”. Jesus, I hadn't even tried linking. And Linux really gave me a rough ride. It was the time of Gutsy Gibbon, and I sat awake for nights and days, weeks and months (1½ month to be exact), looking at a black screen, desperately trying Fedora, Kubuntu, Xubuntu and all other sorts of Linux stuff, md5sum checking and disc-integrity-checking, before figuring out that I had to add “hpet=disable” to the boot parameters, and heureka! Ubuntu loaded, stars came before my eyes,. I was sold. I loved the FOSS. philosophy, the friendliness of the forums and the extreme versatility of Ubuntu. After only a few weeks, I deleted Windows with the happiest smile on my face. Since then, it has been a bumpy ride.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here is a short list containing the main unresolved problems I have encountered, in no particular order.
1.Problems with cheese. I cannot to this day record my web cam. It simply crashes.
2.Even if I could record my web cam, I have still not found any good video editing software.
3.Music software! I need good note-writing / composing / editing software, as I am currently studying music at the Royal Danish Academy of Music on my second year, this is a really really HUGE thing for me. Basically I have so far written all my music by hand. If you have tried composing music by hand, you know how hard it is. There is absolutely no Linux software that can even touch windows/mac software like Finale and Sibelius. Although it should not be hard to make, as it only needs to handle midi files, have a good gui and good sound samples. And it is a must in an operating system “repertoire”. Just like video editing software. And yes, I have tried Rosegarden. It is not good.
4.My audio seems to randomly work/not work. Almost exactly 50% of the times I have installed Ubuntu, Skype has not worked and my sound has been very strange. I have reinstalled Ubuntu many times for the sole purpose of making Skype work. (my girlfriend currently lives in another country, so this is important). I don't think this is a Skype issue. Ubuntu just has no idea what it's doing with the audio. The last time I installed Ubuntu, my laptop inbuilt speakers stopped working. Now I went back to Hardy so all is good right now. (I knoooow. I should check out ekiga... but honestly. Who does that?)
5.The wireless is a mess and behaves pretty much as the sound does. It works every second time I reinstall.
So why do I keep liking Ubuntu?
1.I have no illegal software on my computer (being a poor student, I would download illegal software else wise).
2.I can modify it and to whatever I want with it (except composing and making videos).
3.IT IS FAST
4.Free
5.Flexible
6.Great for the geek and the idiot.
7.The community support is good.
And so on. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My dream is that some day, Ubuntu will be widely used, and software cooperations will also make a Linux version when new software comes out, free or not free. I have now converted four people to Ubuntu and they love it. However my relationship to Ubuntu is pretty ambivalent due to these stupid problems I mentioned. There is only one thing to do about it. Introduce people to Ubuntu. Put the Ubuntu stickers everywhere. In busses, metros, laptops etc. The more people know about it, the better. Talk about Ubuntu in public, pass the Cd on, and send good thoughts to the Ubuntu developers.
My 5 cents. Jakupl