I've decided to switch my main operating system from Ubuntu to Vista. Don't get me wrong, Ubuntu can do everything that I need it to. The problem is that it doesn't do it easily.

My computer is only 8 months old at this point. I purchased it from Dell in early January. Its a Dell for two reasons: 1) they had the option of a Linux only system and 2) it came with a cash-back rebate that covered the purchase of a 17" widescreen monitor. Back then the difference between the prices of purchasing Vista and getting the laptop with Linux installed was only $20. I purchased the version that came with Vista. At the time I had plans to sell it to someone, but that never materialized. Needless to say I'm glad that I ended up keeping my copy of Vista; otherwise I would have to shell out $300 or so now.

Its not that I don't like Ubuntu. I do. In my opinion it is better than any other Distro I've tried. Once everything is set up it is a hell of a system. Getting everything working, however, is a pain in the neck.

Flash, for example, simply didn't work. In order to get it installed and working I had to implement a hack. Adobe at the time didn't have a 64-bit version of their Flash for Linux, so instead I had to install a 32-bit emulator thingy, get the 32-bit version of Firefox running on that, get all of the various libraries installed that Flash required, and then get that running in the emulator as well. This took about a week to finally get working - I tried a bunch of other various options that ended up not working first. It still doesn't work completely right, though. Youtube causes Firefox to crash about once a day or so. Sometimes it crashes even more.

I'm currently running Firefox 2.0.0.11. I would really like to update, but I'm afraid that it won't work and I'll be without Internet for an extended period of time. That is unacceptable. I simply don't have the time or patience to work on this for however long. Updating a browser shouldn't have to be a week-long project. Seriously.

The internet itself didn't work either. Apparently Linux simply didn't even know my wireless card was part of the computer. Ethernet? yeah, thats fine. Works perfectly as long as I'm plugged into the wall. Wireless? not so much. To get that working I've got some form of Windows emulator running the XP driver for the wireless card. It works but often at less than full speed. My roommates, who all run some version of Windows, all have faster internet connections than I do. This irks me because we're all connected to the same router and the same internet. And if I move around (say, switch classrooms for a different class) I have to reboot my computer to connect to a different signal. Thats not inconvienent at all.

And watching DVDs? that took awhile to get working too. Even now it only partially works. I can watch the actual movie, but if I want to watch a special feature or anything else (say, deleted scenes or the like) I'm shit out of luck. I'm sure that there is a fix out there, but I'm also sure that it would probably take me over a week to actually get it working properly. Again, time that I don't have to waste on something that should work straight out of the box.

Dual screen was another problem. All of the help forums recommend Xinerama and Dual-view and whatever. None of those worked properly. I finally got xrandr to work (sort of) but only after trying everything else. It also doesn't work quite like it is supposed to. If any of my applications go full screen, they full screen onto my laptop monitor. Its inconvienient, but I've gotten used to it.

Oh, and I'm only running Ubuntu 7.10. I was going to upgrade, but then I realized that I don't want to have to fuck around for a month to get everything working again.

There are some positive things about Ubuntu (and Linux distros in general). I absolutely love programming on it. I've never really been a big fan of any super-powered text-editor like Emacs or Vi or whatever. I don't need that kind of power. Gedit works fine for me. But its not just that that makes programming an enjoyable experience on Linux. Its the fact that everything is included. Python? yup. preinstalled. Need a C++ compiler? no problem. How about C? sure. Java? easy. CLISP? got it covered. Being a computer science student I switch between languages a lot depending on what class I'm doing work for. Thank God I didn't have to install and configure a bunch of different compilers just to do my homework.

I'm sure many people reading this are going to be thinking, "If you don't like it, don't use it. No one is forcing you to use Linux." They're right. No one is. However, it seems to me that they are missing the root of the problem. It shouldn't be this hard just to get Linux up and running out of the box. These are all things that just about everyone uses their computers for: watching movies and surfing the internet. Not an extreme use case.

From the Ubuntu Wikipedia page: "Ubuntu's goals include providing an up-to-date yet stable Linux distribution for the average user and having a strong focus on usability and ease of installation." And they're right: it is stable. I've never had it crash on me. It is up-to-date. It is easy to use and install, as long as you don't want to do anything extreme like watch a movie or use wireless internet. But is it a distribution for the average user? probably not.

Oh, and another benefit to Linux? I don't have to worry about viruses when I'm looking at porn.

-Joe

Send any questions or comments to vista.from.ubuntu@gmail.com.