Booting XP Home Edition on my 2006, 512KB Ram Fujitsu laptop used to take 15 minutes on a good day, and 25 minutes on a not-so-good one, that is, most of the time!
I do not blame Microsoft for being… Microsoft. They are in the business of making money, and in that they are one of the best in the world – why should they improve an old Operating System (OS) performance when they can sell you a new one? …and in all fairness, XP is getting long in the tooth and was not build for the memory and speed required by modern apps. I only blame myself for having resisted my techy friends advise and waited so long ditching “the establishment” and regain control of my computer.
No, I did not buy a new high-end laptop with dual processors and Windows 7. I installed Linux Ubuntu. It took less than one hour, and maybe another day installing a full “web developer/ programmer” environment, very similar to what I had before on XP, as I earn a living being a professional Web Developer.
The boot performance gain has been… how can I describe a 25 x speed increase: Amazing? Stellar? Galactic?
You know the fable of the turtle and the hare? I had a turtle on Valium and now have a hare on steroids! Contrary to the fable, the turtle is not looking good.
…And that is just the boot time; most universal apps like Firefox load and run faster as well.
Ubuntu does not require a PhD in Unixology – do you know what dependencies are? You used to have to under Unix, but not with this one. Ubuntu creates a true “user friendly” environment where installing/ updating applications is just as friendly (or hostile, pick your own) as Microsoft’s. The user interface is very intuitive and is easy to learn. In fact, many of the Ubuntu features are available on my Netbook Windows 7.
The Ubuntu Operating system is robust, safe and efficient: the file system does not need (nor have) a defragmenter, and virus checker is optional (AVG offers a free one), as is a firewall – at least for an end-user system.
And what really bakes my noodle is that I can do with stock installed or readily available open source (i.e. free) packages 95% of what that I could do with commercial packages under XP. As for the other 5%, I can do without or found on-line work around.
Yes, I have to “relearn” how to use an equivalent app, but I am often amazed at how similar applications are, and the more I learn, the faster I learn.
The only app I have not yet figured out how to install is iTune – go figure since the Mac OS is itself an app running on Unix – but then again, Apple shares some of Microsoft’s corporate philosophy!
Ubuntu is still Unix thought, and those of us who wish to take full control of their machine just need to open a command terminal and Bash away!
Problems? Looking for an Open Source Application? Just Google Ubuntu + some key words and find all the help you need, down to “cut and paste” install and configure commands.
There is an extra perk as well: if you already have a Microsoft OS installed (with an NTFS file system like XP), Ubuntu will keep the existing environment in a partition, install itself in another partition, and give you access to all your Microsoft files – which are likely to be compatible with some Ubuntu application like Open Office as they all follow the Open Document specifications.
My laptop used to think Corporate American… now it thinks Ubuntu!
“Ubuntu” is an ancient African word, meaning “humanity to others”. Ubuntu also means “I am what I am because of who we all are”. The Ubuntu Linux distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world.