Goodbye Vista, Hello Ubuntu! (part 2)

After I had installed Ubuntu, I was able to successfully use it to browse the web, check gmail, and do some other things that my previous Linux experiences in past years would have led me to believe required the command line or compiling software. No more.

Linux was even able to read and write to my Windows Vista partition. I played mp3's that were stored there, and I viewed pictures I had there.

Until the day when, probably due to resizing the partition or writing to it from Linux, the Vista installation just up and died and would not boot any longer.

I'm pretty sure Linux caused this, but I decided I was bored with my PC experience, so I took a plunge and decided to go 100% Linux.

I stuck the install CD in the drive and booted from it and fired up Linux - copying every document and file from "My Documents" to /home/shark/ on my Linux partition. After that, I used a program called a partition editor that comes free with Linux to delete the Windows partition, move the Linux partition, and make a second huge 200GB partition on my drive.

I then moved my /home directory structure there. That's a neat thing about a Unix based operating system. The filesystem (structure of folders and files) doesn't use those goofy drive letters like c:\ for partitions on your hard disk. It makes them invisible, and you just attach a slash to them anywhere you like.

So, / is the root directory, and it is on your root partition. /home/ can be on another partition while /opt /etc /bin and other directories stay back on the previous one - and you can't tell. They just look like folders and files on one giant hard drive.

So, I was stuck with Linux as my only operating system.

As a result, I began to really feel the burn of leaving Windows behind. I will tell those stories here. While I believe the move to have been fun and entertaining, and my PC is pretty much as functional as it was before, and even does a few things better than it did, it hasn't all been positive, and I think it's important to get that balanced perspective.

Just to start off, though, let's look at some popular myths that I call The Linux Lies:

• Linux can play your Windows software using a free program called Wine
• Linux has free office software called OpenOffice.org that is as good as MS Office and completely compatible with it
• Linux is more efficient than Windows
• Linux has awesome hardware compatibility and the beauty of open source is that anyone can write a driver
• Linux is more stable than Windows and it crashes less
  
• Linux is "more powerful" than Windows

Lies. All lies. And the people that tell these lies are liars. They lie because they have an agenda. And when you call them on their lies, these lying liars will tell you that everything you experience is unique to you because you are too stupid to use Linux the right way. But they are lying when they say that, because they lie.

The truth is that Linux does a few things better than Windows, and it does quite a few things a hell of a lot worse. Sometimes there is a good explanation that makes sense as to why Linux sucks compares to Windows, and sometimes Linux does just crash because it isn't as cool as the religious zealots claim it is.

Overall, I'm sticking with Linux. I have enough technical ability to weather through the worst of it, my home PC is not mission critical and I back up frequently allowing me to do a re-install without having an anxiety attack. I'm fairly skilled at searching Google for answers and finding the right ones, and I enjoy fiddling with my PC (a little - not a lot). I built the one that I am using by purchasing the parts separately and putting it all together myself... which is also why I had the SATA cables plugged into ports 1 and 2 instead of 5 and 6.

Following articles will cover my experiences with Linux that have been adventures, but don't let me scare you away from it. Linux is a lot of fun, and I think it is plenty good enough for a free operating system with free software throughout.