Warning: Moderate to partly cloudy compgeekiness ahead.
…but I still intend to buy a full install copy of Windows 7 for one computer and upgrade another one here at twc central. Fickle? Nah. IMO, Win7 is about as good as Ubuntu 9.04–better in one regard: media center functions–and I suspect I’ll get a more than a few calls on support for it from friends and family and nodding acquaintances–ships passing in the night, etc.–though primarily from folks who don’t really need support at all, just a little friendly tutoring to feel comfortable, as it is a little easier to figure out any differences between Win7 and previous Windows versions than between any Windows version’s way of doing things and Ubuntu’s way of doing things.
Of course, media setups for Ubuntu are still kinda geeky, an issue that is still holding back adoption among average users. And media center setup? Fugettaboutit. The first three steps in setting up an Ubuntu (or any Linux distro) media center that is also intended for use as a desktop: “Tear hair out. Let regrow. Tear out again.” *heh* It can be done, but it’s a bloody mess. For almost all other uses, choosing between Windows 7, OSX, Ubuntu (and a few other easy-to-use Linux distros) and PCBSD is simply a matter of personal taste, IMO, as each has advantages and disadvantages and each has apps that are “good enough” for average users available in plenty.
I’m an Ubuntu user myself and I will also be buying a copy of Win7. I got in on the beta and loved it (for being windows).
BTW, “Ubuntu is an african word meaning ‘slackware is too hard for me'”
“Ubuntu is an african word meaning ’slackware is too hard for me’” *heh* And even if it’s not, ‘Ubuntu’ also means, “I just felt lazy that day. Ya wanna make something of it?”
Like the, “loved it (for being windows).” 🙂
I guess the best thing I can say about Win7 is that I was able to use it for days at a time without getting disgusted and rebooting to linux.
There ya go. The biggest thing that appeals to me about Win7–and argues for it as opposed to Ubuntu–is the fact that Me$$y$oft seems to finally have gotten its shit together with Media Center. Linux? Notsomuch. Even Linux Media Center, built around Ubuntu as a special purpose distro, doesn’t quite work for me and takes a ginormous amount of tweaking.
Then there’s the ease of installing and updating drivers for my nVidia vidcard on this machine. Easier on Win7 by quite some bit. Still have to use a clunky, unsupported add-on to manage screen resolution and drivers for the thing in Ubuntu, because the built in applets do NOT do the job properly and command line management of screen rez is just too retro for me, now.
Still, for everyday use, Ubuntu is just fine and has the advantage of being easier to install and configure WINE on over some other distros (notably, my fav “old hardware” distro, Puppy Linux). The fact that I can install and configure some great older Windows products on Ubuntu (like Encore 4.2 music transcription software), operating under WINE, that simply WILL NOT run under any Windows OS past Win98 in ANY emulation or compatibility mode is another plus for Ubuntu.
So, this machine will remain dual-boot for a while, while others in the house get Win7 or an appropriate Linux or other OS (mostly Ubuntu, but even one PCBSD).