Greetings,
I'm Carl from Montclair. I work in Parsippany for an Expense Management Co.
I'm a relative noob at Linux. I have been experimenting with it for the last 2 years or so. I started out with SUSE and have used PC Linux OS, Mepis, Damn Small, Puppy, Mint, Knoppix, Fedora, Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Xubuntu.
I too spend the majority of my free time in front of a computer.
I currently use Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn on a Dell Optiplex gx260. I also have it installed on my son's Dell Dimension 8200. I recently migrated my step-son from Win 2000 to Linux Mint on an older Gateway. The PC was taking so long to boot and so long to do simple tasks, like opening Firefox, that he finally let me put Linux on his computer. No more spyware and I don't really have to worry about viruses. And with Mint I didn't have to worry about getting multimedia codecs cause they come preinstalled. The migration was easy and quick. I had Windows off and Mint on with all of his files transfered within an hour.
I do have a winbloze XP machine setup that I have to use everyday since my Sandisk m250 MP3 player won't work with Linux (it needs MTP and I can't get libmtp or mtpdude working). I also have a old HP ze4805us laptop that I had to put winbloze xp back on because I could not get the wireless to consistently work on Ubuntu 6.06 or 7.04. I had Ubuntu on the laptop for about a year but switched back after I put 7.04 on it and could not get the wireless to work. I only use the laptop when I travel or occasionally on the weekend when I go over the inlaws and want to use their wireless network.
For the most part I use my ubuntu machine for everything day to day. However there are some projects that I occasionally do that I need winbloze. For instance:
- The GIMP is not as easy to use as Photoshop Elements for the average person. There is no program as powerful and easy to use as Elements for Linux.
- There is nothing compatible to Nero 6 - Nero for Linux doesn't cut it. I can't create DVD's from .avi's in one step like I can with Nero 6 in winbloze.
- I can't find a program to burn graphics on my Lightscribe disks. I don't use it often but when I do I need a program that works well and it relatively easy to use.
- I could pretty much fully go to Ubuntu 100% (I'm 97% now) if I could get support for my MP3 player in Ubuntu and if I could get my wireless card in my laptop to work so well and with such ease that my wife would feel comfortable using it. When I had Ubuntu 6.06 on my laptop I could get the wireless working but I had to jump thru hoops every time I wanted to use it. My wife was not up for the release/restart/refresh/reload etc...that was required to get my wireless card to work. And as I said before, in 7.04 it wouldn't work at all.
I know I have a couple of gripes with Ubuntu, but don't get me wrong, I LOVE IT!!! It is my primary desktop and is installed on 3 desktops in my house. Really my gripes are with Linux in general, not just Ubuntu.
Anyway I have babbled enough - Nice meeting all of you and I hope to connect with you all in this Ubuntu Community.
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