RE: Ubuntu 9.04: The official review
I fell into Ubuntu, after following the "Use Ubuntu Live CD to Backup Files from Your Dead Windows Computer" procedure.
I support some of the commercial releases for my work, but I have tried various Linux distros since 1994. This is the first one that I would consider using as a personal desktop.
After saving the personal data from a WinVista laptop that had disk errors, and realizing I needed to pay $20 for the media to reinstall WinVista, I wondered if I even wanted WinVista. I hadn't even finished posing that question to my wife when she pointed out that she hated WinVista. It was her laptop that I was rescuing.
She is quite happy with Ubuntu, except for the odd behavior of "scrolling" the windows off the viewable desktop occasionally. I think that has something to do with the scrollbar at the edge of her Gateway touchpad, but I'm not sure. She can get them back by clicking in the bottom right.
It has all the hardware support that I needed, found my networked printer better than Windows, shares the family desktop folder, and it has all of the programs that I needed. I don't want any more Word Processing than Open Office, and I have never used a financial program.
I did add Flash, which I found painless when trying to launch Pandora, and I did select Adobe. I also went to the extra effort to load Sun Java, because that's the only one I trust.
The LiveCD being the install CD was the final kicker to push me to a Ubuntu install.
I probably would have gone with either Redhat or Fedora if I had to do an install separate from a LiveCD.
