Has Ubuntu Replaced Windows on Your Box?

[vdal]

Nope, and here's some why!

First, I should admit that I am a long-time Windows user who really
wanted to "go Linux". I have tried a slew of Lunux distros and decided
that Ubuntu was the best option (although, since I rather like KDE, I
put the Kubuntu desktop on top of Dapper 6.0.6). It runs really sweetly
on my main desktop, even picking up my Samsung 24" screen (and also on a
odd second machine that choked on a Windows XP driver of some kind). The
installation set up a totally satisfactory dual boot with XP
effortlessly. The update and add/remove programs support is really
impressive now, although my first newbie project - installing VMware
player - meant I had to do a crash course in aptitude/tar! Then to set
up an XP virtual machine under (K)Ubuntu, and a (K)Ubuntu vm under XP -
even managed to get the VMware tools mostly operational in Ubuntu. I
managed, but it's not for the faint-hearted or computer novice.

Everything looked really promising, until I tried to do some serious
work: getting two USB scanners working either directly in Ubuntu, or in
a vm, because I do quite a lot of really heavy-duty OCR in several
languages, including Russian/Ukrainian. No way, José! Ubuntu doesn't
support my scanners. That really matters to me.

So under Linux I have a nice desktop that doesn't allow me to do
everything I want to, while under Windows I have a nice desktop on
which I can do everything, including running (K)Ubuntu under VMware!

So, personally, thanks but no replacement for me. However, I would not
hesitate to recommend (K)Ubuntu to anyone who balks at the price of
Windows but wants to get into computing with all the essentials for
office/internet work and play - and, while I'm not making the move, my
(K)Ubuntu dual-boot and vm are certainly here to stay.

And I shall keep watching, because come the day I can scan and OCR in
Ubuntu, I could really be tempted to jump the fence. Keep up the good
work!


-- 
vdal