ramblinche81
February 7th, 2010, 06:25 AM
I wanted to move off Windows because I was tired of the system crashes and paying $$$ for OS upgrades with no real improvement in performance or end user experience. I was intrigued by the offerings of an open source system and the supporting community.
I made the move to Karmic and have been very happy with the overall experience. System fixes have been no worse or more complicated than adding hardware to Windows machines and the open source applications more than meet my family needs which are admittedly simple..home/office apps, internet and video editing.
I built a PC from scrounged parts (Asus AM2+ motherboard with AMD dual core) and ATI 1600pro video card not knowing some people believe NVIDIA is a better fit with Linux. My ignorance was bliss ? Most technology was from 2007 or 2008.
After component assembly I loaded 9.10 and was fully up and running in less than 30 minutes. Mine is Karmic 9.10 only with NO dual boot for Windows.
Linksys USB wireless autoloaded with no problems and connection to secure network was as simple as following the prompts. I already turned off on board LAN via boot options.
ATI 1600pro video card drivers autoloaded flawlessly. Plug and Play.
SATA and IDE drives all work as expected. Same for all external USB drives.
Networking and file sharing with WinXP was available almost by default.
Networking and file sharing with Win Vista was a problem which was solved on the Vista machine by adding the user name from the Karmic machine to the Vista machine.
HP 1600 color laser on network PC (XP machine) accessed easily and prints with no hangups.
Sound was fixed following the Sound sticky. Motherboard has a reputation for sound problems in Vista/7 anyway.
DVD sound was a little more challenging and solved by loading a new movie player app. Windows has multiple video player apps so no real surprise an alternate app was needed here as well.
I do think you have to have some technology curiousity to enjoy the Linux/Ubuntu experience. I agree with the poster who stated if your VCR/DVD player is flashing 12:00, you might want to stick with Windows. That said, I am impressed with the depth of support from the community forum and I look forward to exploring open source apps, maybe even figuring out how system intensive gaming software is handled.
I made the move to Karmic and have been very happy with the overall experience. System fixes have been no worse or more complicated than adding hardware to Windows machines and the open source applications more than meet my family needs which are admittedly simple..home/office apps, internet and video editing.
I built a PC from scrounged parts (Asus AM2+ motherboard with AMD dual core) and ATI 1600pro video card not knowing some people believe NVIDIA is a better fit with Linux. My ignorance was bliss ? Most technology was from 2007 or 2008.
After component assembly I loaded 9.10 and was fully up and running in less than 30 minutes. Mine is Karmic 9.10 only with NO dual boot for Windows.
Linksys USB wireless autoloaded with no problems and connection to secure network was as simple as following the prompts. I already turned off on board LAN via boot options.
ATI 1600pro video card drivers autoloaded flawlessly. Plug and Play.
SATA and IDE drives all work as expected. Same for all external USB drives.
Networking and file sharing with WinXP was available almost by default.
Networking and file sharing with Win Vista was a problem which was solved on the Vista machine by adding the user name from the Karmic machine to the Vista machine.
HP 1600 color laser on network PC (XP machine) accessed easily and prints with no hangups.
Sound was fixed following the Sound sticky. Motherboard has a reputation for sound problems in Vista/7 anyway.
DVD sound was a little more challenging and solved by loading a new movie player app. Windows has multiple video player apps so no real surprise an alternate app was needed here as well.
I do think you have to have some technology curiousity to enjoy the Linux/Ubuntu experience. I agree with the poster who stated if your VCR/DVD player is flashing 12:00, you might want to stick with Windows. That said, I am impressed with the depth of support from the community forum and I look forward to exploring open source apps, maybe even figuring out how system intensive gaming software is handled.