Sparse Random Thoughts

Well, I've been talking about plans to switch over from Windows to Linux, and have been looking at different Linux distros for a bit, but I guess I wasn't moving quick enough. This past Friday my Windows install on my desktop gave up the ghost. I had been removing a lot of programs and organizing the partitions on that disk and one of those killed off Windows. So, left with the dilemma to reinstall or move on, I moved on.

If I had been choosing purely on my philosophies I think I'd a went with BLAG, but there are other outside influences that prevent me from going strictly GNU. Instead decided to use Ubuntu. I think I went with it because I was always happy to see when I had a question that it usually had already been answered in their forums, which makes life a little easier for me.

I'll still have Windows on the laptop for those times that school requires, but I'm hoping to settle in and make myself comfortable with Linux on the desktop.

Well, so far I've installed 10 different distros so far and I've determined I'm quite the newb (or just lazy) and really like Synaptic, the package manager. Though I must say some of the distros which didn't choose Synaptic are pretty slick and I'll continue to mess with them. Overall, for users like me, I have to say Ubuntu's Update Manager makes life easier. I think the most difficult install I had was openSuSE's net install, I didn't find their directions to be clear enough and had to search for help on it.

Last entry I mentioned how I liked to jump distros. While this was great for testing out how a distro discovered my hardware, I at most would have two distros installed at a time. This limited direct comparison. So, I didn't see my distro jumping habits changing I changed how I tested them. I'm now using VMware to install and test different distros, this allows me to keep all the different installs and makes it easier to do research (without tying up both computers) when I run into problems. I currently have nine different virtual machines setup, but expect that number to grow. Hopefully soon I'll comment on things I've liked or disliked so far about these distros.

I'm one of those people who jumps in and out of distros so fast I'm pretty sure I miss half the cool stuff. I'm not sure if this is a common issue for people looking to leave Windows, but it is one I have. It's sort of like taking a kid that has only had Hershey's chocolate bars and taking him to a candy shop. I want to try them all so I can find the one I like the most, but in hurrying about I think I might miss some of the more subtle nuances. But this will be my lot in life, for now, hopefully I’ll find one I can settle down with at least long enough figure out Linux better.