I'm In Love..

...with Ubuntu.

Why? After trying out many a distro, I've finally installed a version of GNU/Linux that actually works for me! -> Ubuntu 6.06 "Dapper Drake"(with 'Long Time Support', LTS - updates & support for FIVE YEARS!)

"The Ubuntu community is built on the ideas enshrined in the Ubuntu Philosophy: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customise and alter their software in whatever way they see fit."

"Ubuntu is suitable for both desktop and server use. The current Ubuntu release supports PC (Intel x86), 64-bit PC (AMD64) and PowerPC (Apple iBook and Powerbook, G4 and G5) architectures."

I downloaded the Desktop version's ISO through BitTorrent, burned it and installed it. I must say, that was the most Impressive Installer I have ever seen! Why? Read on..

Features which Impressed me:

• OS Installation from a fully functional desktop (The Boot CD is a Live CD!), with multimedia support (I could actually listen to music or play a movie in fullscreen, while the OS was being installed - if I wanted to!!) It was as easy as installing a program in windows..
• Ubuntu is not Crippleware, like many other linux distros - There is no 'Enterprise Version' with additional features. What you get for free is the complete set of packages.
  
• Complete Documentation (Online, bookmarked by default in the browser), which was also surprisingly easy to navigate.
  
• Two Update managers, basic & advanced - no more worrying about 'Dependencies' when installing packages.

Within a few hours after installation, I was running it like I was using my Windows XP, with more ease! There are literally thousands of additional packages available, like clones of Partition Magic (QTParted) & Winamp(XMMS)

Some Famous Softwares Included by default:

• OpenOffice.org 2.02 (Better than MS Office, IMO)
  
• GIMP 2.2 (Photoshop replacement, although not as easy to use - IMO)
  
• Firefox 1.5.0.3 (The Best Browser there is!)
  
• Gaim 1.5.1cvs (IM Client for Yahoo!, MSN, Jabber (hence Google Talk also), AOL and more)

Then there are movie players, Evolution email client, and all the common gnome utilities like gedit. There are also a few games - much more available at the website.

It can automatically mount existing drives in your hard disk, including NTFS drives (Read Only mode - full access possible via the Linux-NTFS project) - if you use the 'manually edit partition' option during setup.

Ubuntu has 'hibernate' option similar to that of XP, which is quite a boon for me as power outages are frequent in my place..

And the best thing of all, for me, is that it had support for my ADSL connection! I just had to run 'sudo pppoeconf' from the terminal, and now my system automatically connects to the Internet upon bootup..

So Finally, my search for a worthy competitor to WinXP is over. I have started using it as my primary OS, and it just makes me feel warm inside to be a supporter of the OSS movement.