LINUX

A few days ago I decided to switch to a LINUX operating system called Ubuntu. (non-nerds, this isn't going to get any less nerdy, so feel free to vacate if you want to, guilt-free. Promise. Knitting content tomorrow.) Actually, let me backtrack a little bit, because I really do not make major decisions like this on whims. About a month and a half ago, a friend told me about this "great operating system! it's LINUX! I'ts fast and pretty and awesome!" (Okay, that might not be his EXACT words. Sue me.) I checked out the website repeatedly for about two weeks. By "repeatedly" I mean that I probably wasted at least 10 hours of my life just researching this silly thing. Then I took a week or two off, and did that all over. About a week before I decided to make the change, I was looking up all kinds of crap. What programs could I not live without that don't have equivalents? What the bloody hell is an emulator? What makes LINUX so special? You get the picture. Finally, one day, I decided to make the leap. I carefully scoured my computer for anything that needed to be be backed up onto the external hard drive and did so. Then I started installation. (My first thought was to partition hard drives, just in case, but decided to just go for the fresh start.) So, now we are back where we started. I installed Ubuntu, blah blah blah. So far, though, I really like it. I think it is pretty user friendly, even for a non-nerd. There are TONS of helpful resources out there whenever I get stuck doing something. It is super-duper fast, and I found out how to customize and make pretty much everything a lovely shade of bubblegum pink. There is NOTHING on my desktop. (SQUEEEE!) the only major snag that I have run into (and yes, this is pretty major) is that I can't seem to get my printer to work with the OS. Sadly, Lexmark (my printer manufacturer) doesn't really have printer support for LINUX operating systems. Which, really, is just sad. I searched briefly for a workaround of some sort, but gave up pretty quickly, since I had homework to do. Anyways, besides the whole printer thing, I really, really like it. I am looking forward to spending more time in the Terminal (kind of like DOS) and playing around there. I think I am forever a LINUX convert already, though, and you would have to have some pretty compelling stuff to get me to go back to Windows or to shell out the major bucks for a Mac. I'm off to look for LINUX related knitting patterns. Tee Hee! Any of you use LINUX?