Using Linux for the first time

You should have figured it out by now, I use Linux. I have been using Ubuntu for 5 days, though my first touch was 10 days ago.

 

I decided to make the step. You may be wondering why. First, Windows was driving me nuts, I get errors I couldn’t figure out, programs that weren’t working, MS did things I didn’t want to. I wanted more power, more control over my computer. I’m also very interested in computers, and not just what you see, but what’s behind the GUI. Linux is a great way to experience it. It’s far more powerful than windows, and it is virus free.

 

Another great thing in Linux is the community around it. In the IRC channels you have like 1000 people, who can help you, or with who you can relax. The huge wiki-database is also a big help, just like the forums. Being helped on Linux has his advantages and disadvantages. They can give you the commands, you just have to re-type them in your computer. It is not like in Windows you have to say something like ‘Do you see the button in the right corner? No, the other one. Disappeared ? Sorry, can’t help you. ‘ Yet there are some disadvantages about asking help, you need to have patient. Just like you should have in real live. People don’t know everything, and are mostly very busy. After all, they are just volunteers, and you get the software for free. It’s not like you can demand technical help, like you could do when you paid for the software.

 

There is another thing that can go wrong, it is not their fault, nor yours. Most of the time, you have multiple solutions for one problem. If person A tells you to do A, what is perfectly correct, it can occur that it doesn’t work perfectly. Now, if person B helps you some moments later with method B, and person C with his own C-method, it can become a bit messy. But hey, eventually, there will be someone who can help you.

 

So, that’s basically why i switched, and there are probably even more things I haven’t even found out yet. I have had some problems with installing myself. A week ago were the things I find now ‘oh that simple to solve’ really annoying. I have ubuntu installed twice from the live CD, then downloaded & burned the alternate CD, and after that I had some GRUB problems. If you look it the bright way, that is how you learn it, with trial and error.

 

After the weekend, when I was finally on Ubuntu, my wireless Internet didn’t work. Yet, I was a victim to the ‘multiple-solutions-mess’. Someone let me use ndiswrapper, another one let me use a driver, but it had to be another driver. Had some difficulties with setting it up, although it really isn’t that hard, but now my Internet always works fine, what can’t be said about the other windows-machines here.

 

I haven’t even used Ubuntu for a week by now, and I don’t want anything else anymore.