I thought I'd throw my tuppence worth in. Before I discovered Ubuntu, I had a few attempts at installing Linux. One was Mandrake (version 7, I think), and I had a couple of attempts at installing Debian and Redhat, all to no avail. I can't remember how I found out about Ubuntu (Dapper), but I found the Ship-it feature, ordered a CD (and received 3!).
It worked on my laptop (Pentium M, ATI graphics card) and the desktop PC (AMD Athlon and S3 onboard) without any issues whatsoever. I found it a breath of fresh air when compared to Windows, especially with issues like wireless networking. Ever since I started using wireless with windows, I've had issues where it just refuses to connect to the network at all, and I still find these issues with my current Vista laptop, especially switching between wireless networks. Ubuntu just worked for me, and I have had no similar issues with subsequent releases. My time with Ubuntu hasn't exactly been hassle-free - I would say that most niggles occur when upgrading from one release to another (8.04 rings a bell), but a fresh install is never more than 20 minutes away, unlike Microsoft's offering. I would concede that there can still be issues with things like Flash, but someone who is completely new to Windows would not necessarily know to download the Flash plugin. With the interface, Ubuntu/Gnome makes a lot more sense than Windows. I have a friend who had limited computer experience. He had Windows for a while, but when it crashed and he couldn't find his installation media, someone provided a copy of Fedora and he has never looked back since. If a complete novice were to ask me to set up a computer for them, Windows wouldn't get a look in! And yes, I did try to convince my friend to switch to Ubuntu :) Gus -- [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
