Could Ubuntu Linux rule the future over Mac OS X or even Windows?

Ok. I must admit I just created a computer box with Ubuntu 9. I have been so impressed with this operating system, I started to wonder what was the future of Mac OS X or Windows. I don

Ubuntu is a community developed operating system, supported by Canonical, Mark Shuttleworth’s company.

Most people purchase computers to run programs – whether it is to send email, browse the web, meet friends of girlfriends on msn messenger, do office work or just play solitaire.
People buy computers to use programs for their functionality not to run operating systems be in Microsoft Windows, the new Microsoft Vista product, the Mac Operations Systems or the various Linux Operating Systems – be they Ubuntu Linux, Mandiva, Knoppix or Debian.
At the heart of most computer users is functionality and usability. It is as simple as that. It is an interesting situation that the Microsoft Corporation controls the vast lion’s share of the computer operating system market. Indeed it even has a major share holding of the next player in line – Apple with the Macintosh OS (Operating System).
What are the issues?
1) Linux is not really free. Linux, in its various flavors or distros, is given free of charge, whether it is on a cd, DVD or downloaded. You can install the program on your own compute or various computers, at no charge to yourself whatsoever
This is in direct contrast to a commercial product such as Microsoft Windows or the new Microsoft Vista which you to purchase a boxed version or a valid license which comes with most computer systems purchased. This license which comes on most new computers as a matter of course could be referred to as the “Microsoft Computer Tax” and is not an option you can forego, to reduce the purchase of your new compute – whether or not you wish to use another operating system such as Linux.
Linux is given free of charge to install. This is not a shareware or time limited version of the product which requires a registration fee after a period of time.
If you require product support or training commercial organizations do exist which will charge you for support of that product or for training or both. Indeed it can be said that Microsoft itself charges for product support, Symantec the antivirus / security organization charges for basic support by product, subscription fees – sometimes automatic subscription fees and 900 phone number and charge card “Priority Support”.
Indeed you would not expect your local school or technical college to provide computer and compute software training free of charge.
2) Linux is complex and will force you to learn the Linux command line,
Not true simple as that. The various Linux distros all have GUI (Graphic User Interfaces) just like Microsoft Windows, Windows used to come as command line DOS. Windows users use pull down windows to operate the software. So can and do most Linux users
3) Compared to Windows, Installing Linux is Difficult
- The vast majority of computer users are computer neophytes and beginners.
These computer users purchase computers with the operations system Microsoft Windows or the Macintosh Operating System installed on their new computers. These people could not install the Windows Operating system and the device drivers necessary if their life depended on it. How the situation of a Linux is based computer any different.
It is only a matter of time until new computers come preinstalled with the Linux operating system. Imagine if Henry Ford had been told not to build new cars since there were few good roads available in America.
4) My Computer Hardware Just Works Under Windows
5) Again untrue in many cases and soon to be less of an issue as more and more computers will come preinstalled with a Linux operating system. Already Dell Computer (which was a Microsoft stalwart) is selling Linux based laptops. Interestingly the response to the Ubuntu Linux dell notebooks is quite positive, If you think Linux hardware compatibility is an issue try upgrading to the new Microsoft Vista from your previous Microsoft Windows product. You will find to your surprise that few if little of computer hardware are supported. You may have upgraded to the new Vista and found you have either no sound, good video or even internet connections via your network adapter device or wireless network adapter. And try undoing your upgrade to get back to your working windows version – it cannot be done.
Lastly you may say I run Windows since all of the programs I use are available only on the Windows operations system – since that is the dominant player in the market. You may well surmise that since Windows is the more than dominant player in the computer OS market that software developers write their product almost exclusively for the windows operations system and that market.
This is true. If you are using a specialized product for your job, industry, situation or preference you may well be locked in.
In the end most people buy and use computers for functionality and use. Most people use their computers for internet browsing, communication – whether it by email or messenger services (M.S.N., Yahoo, Skype, Eyeball Chat), downloading and burning music and in more than many cases for playing nothing more than computer games such as simple solitaire.
In these cases the functionality of Linux and its program base easily allows for this. Indeed many of the cutting edge programs and computer services come out of left field by computer software developers and enthusiasts whose preference of Computer Operating System is guess what – Linux in its various forms.

Recently, I was charged with the task with editing and authoring a DVD. I recently upgraded my setup to Ubuntu Intrepid (64 bit). Supposedly, there would be at least modest speed gains when it came to encoding various video formats. So, I started off on my task, albeit with a new set of tools. Let’s start of with an inventory of resources, and then go through the actual process for making a DVD.
For capture, I used the most standard, stable solution: Kino. There is one issue when capturing video over Firewire(IEEE 1394) in Kino: It has to be run as su. Open up a terminal, type “sudo kino”, enter your password, and you will have no troubles. If you are editing in another program, I recommend capturing your video as a single file. To do so, you will have to turn off “auto split”. This automatically determines when the camera cuts off, and then chops up the video into separate DV files. For an hour of footage, this will often be 70-100 individual clips to keep up with. To keep this from happening, go to “Edit > Preferences”(shortcut CTRL + P) under the Kino main menu, click the “Capture” tab, and uncheck “Auto Split Files”. This will make the video much more manageable.
Normally, my editing/encoding setup consists of a Cinelerra installation(the best configurations are those contained in the Akirad repositories). I used it for editing, titling and most of my FX work. It has worked flawlessly for me, however, it has a few hangups. The interface is really rough, and the learning curve is high. Keyframes and motion paths are a pain to work with. It’s rendering is incredible, and it has no issues with font aliasing after rendering. It was the only program I could get to work on a consistent basis with Linux.
That all changed with the release of Kdenlive 0.7.2. Earlier versions of Kdenlive were buggy, unpolished, and crash prone. If you saved your work every 15 seconds, it still wouldn’t be enough. The new version is incredible. Not only have stability issues been taken care of, but they have added some incredible realtime FX, a stellar editing experience, and given the user interface a much-needed overhaul. The editing experience is closer to mainstream programs like iMovie and Final Cut Pro. There is only one drawback, at least on my version of Kdenlive: Font aliasing in titles. While it handles the the video editing like a pro, the rendering of titles(at least in 0.7.2) is a disappointment, giving you jagged, unreadable lettering as rendered product. Because of this issue, I was forced to do titling in Cinelerra.
After I finished editing my files, I rendered it as a RAW DV file. While this was quite large, it also gave me an excellent starting point for putting the titles on DVD. I had two options for this process, but one was vastly better than the other. In reading the Linux forums, their were two options that gained my trust: tovid gui and devede.
The main differences between them is stability, and what can be done with the DVD after you finish encoding it. ToVid’s GUI allows you to specify background and play buttons, along with a menu tree. The output is rather crude, and the options are limited. The main drawback was an inability to customize encoding quality. Even with the script settings being locked down, it still had a hard time rendering properly. Of the 3 times I tried to use it, only 2 resulted in a successful encoding. It also adds the burning process as one of the “features”. I was routinely met with botched burns and buffer underruns. Don’t use ToVid’s GUI unless you absolutely have to.
DeVeDe offers you a better user experience. Previews of your menu title are available. You can do a 60 second render to make sure your video and audio will not suffer if quality is adjusted. Yes, it actually allows you to adjust the quality of the render, and gives you an estimate of disk space that will be taken up after conversion to MPEG-2. If you want something like a looping video clip and music for your disc menu, it offers access to this as well, without causing you substantial mental anguish. For me, the best parts are the many rendering options. DeVeDe allows you to render just the disc structure, the mpeg files, or combine them into a disc ISO. You can even flag the rendering process to take advantage of optimization for multi-core processors. They don’t try to integrate burning into their options, as there are many fine programs that have designed to do exactly that. This shows the wisdom of the development team. Once the ISO is ready, you just have to select the burning program that you would like to use. One cautionary issue with DeVeDe: It defaults to PAL(European 25 FPS format). North American users will need to set the encode format to NTSC under the video and main menus before encoding takes place. A failure to set keep the format the same between menus will result in a botched encoding.
I present the ultimate burning solution: K3B. I love it. This can burn every type of disc imaginable. Its management of hardware and software buffers is incredible, and quite frankly, it just works. The only botched disk I had while using this as my burning program was my own fault (I had a microscopic amount of peanut butter on my thumb when I picked up the disk, and it caused the laser to scatter on the DVD surface). K3B even plays a bugle call to let you know the burn was successful. Even though Brasero comes standard on my installation of Intrepid, it still managed to drop the ball. Use K3B and reclaim your wasted time.
After you are done burning, be sure to test your disk in different types of players. Be sure to test it in a standard DVD player for your region, and not just in your computer’s DVD player. It needs to be tested against hardware based codecs. As an extra step, you may want to test on a Blu-Ray player, just to make sure it runs/scales properly.
Hopefully this overview will put you on the path to the stable encoding and burning of your next project. I have to leave you now, as six hours of raw footage await me. God bless and success to you.

Pidgin, Gaim, Kopete: these days, there’s a variety of different options for instant messaging (or IM, for short) for Linux distributions such as Ubuntu. they all connect to a variety of different protocols and offer plenty of advanced features, so which one should you use?

Pidgin and Gaim are basically the same program. For reasons that have a lot to do with naming rules laid out by America Online, the Gaim project recently decided to change its name to Pidgin. Pidgin offers the ability to connect to many different protocols, including the large ones such as AOL Instant Messaging (AIM), Yahoo, MSN, and Google Talk. It’s really lightweight and supports tabbed conversation, timestamping, and buddy pounces. It also has a fully expandable plug-in interface which is useful for adding new functionality. Gaim is created to run with GTK, which comes with every Ubuntu installation and facilitates integration into the GNOME desktop manager.

Kopete has many of the same features Gaim has, but it is better integrated into the KDE desktop manager. The Kopete design focus is more based around the user interface, allowing users to display buddy pictures right in the buddy list and keeping IM from becoming too intrusive. It supports message encryption and archiving, and integrates into the KDE contact manager for a complete solution for instant messaging.

The best thing and the worst thing about moving to a brand new operating system is all of the new applications that are immediately available to you. With Ubuntu, an open-source GNU/Linux based operating system, this is compounded even more by the astounding number of options along with the close-to automated package management system and strong community support.

Therefore, it’s helpful to have a basic guide to guide new and returning users through the varied software options by highlighted specific popular packages and providing installation directions, along with information about where users can look for more options and support. By showing the new Ubuntu user the best of the software repository from the start, we can ensure retention and thereby further undercut the market share of the 8,000 pound gorillas in the OS market.

Seeing all of the software available for Ubuntu through the official repositories is an easy and enjoyable experience. In fact, you don’t even need to open an internet browser. You can see the repositories (or repo’s) in two different ways:

1. Click on the Add/Remove Programs option in the Applications menu. This will most of the more popular items, along with each package’s estimated popularity. The option to install is provided right through the dialog screen.

2. Use the Synaptic Package Manager, which is available through selecting System–>Administration–>Synaptic Package Manager. A search function is included, making this process even easier. Also, you can choose to update all of your current packages through the click of the button. More often than not, no restart or reboot is required.

Without further ado, here are some common applications for Ubuntu, and directions on how to install them.BitTorrent

qBitTorrent is an application used to connect to the BitTorrent file sharing network, which acts as an uncentralized way to distribute and download large files without much hassle. Many sites on the internet provide these torrent files, and it is the responsibility of the user to make sure they are not violating the copyright laws of their respective nation by using them.

qBitTorrent is not available in the official repositories, so you’ll have to use the Terminal to install it. You can access the Terminal through Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal. As soon as it opens, enter the following commands (a root password may be required).

gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.lst

Copy the following lines to the end of the file:

deb http://hydr0g3n.free.fr/qbittorrent/feisty/ ./

deb-src http://hydr0g3n.free.fr/qbittorrent/feisty/ ./

Close the window, and copy and paste the following command:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install qbittorrentEvolution

Check your e-mail in style with this client. Evolution comes pre-installed with Ubuntu, and you can open it from the Applications menu. This program is ideal for calendaring, keeping track of contacts, and checking e-mail. If it isn’t installed for some reason, you can install it with the Synaptic Package Manager.Pan

Pan is a way to connect to UseNet. It’s one of the few for Ubuntu that has a graphical display.

Type this in to install it:

sudo apt-get install pan

Pan rivals the XNews program for Windows, and it’s completely open-source.Firefox

Firefox is a really quick web browser developed by Mozilla. Yep, it definitely knocks the socks off of Internet Explorer, and it’s way more compatible with most websites than Safari. Based on the latest statistics, more people than ever before are moving over to Firefox from other browsers, and almost everything on the internet is compatible with it. Though it comes pre-installed with Ubuntu, I definitely think it’s worth a mention. If it’s not preinstalled, type this in the command line:

sudo apt-get install firefoxPidgin

Multi-protocol Instant Messaging, baby! Includes support for AIM, Yahoo!, GMail, and MSN. I know, I know, it’s amazing. And trust me, it is EASY to install!

Here’s the directions: Insert this stuff into your command line.

wget

sudo dpkg -i pidgin_2.0.0beta7devel.vicox-1_i386.deb

I hope this was a useful start. For more application ideas, you can try the official documentation or the forums. Good luck, and enjoy your new experience with Ubuntu!

As I was sitting here, preparing to write this article, my mind wandered back to the day I accidentally wiped out a Windows installation with a Gutsy Gibbon CD. I thought I was in trouble. I had just knocked out my work documents, including various templates I made, along with scanner support, and my Adobe 8.0 suite.
It was at that moment I decided to make a go of it with Linux as my sole operating system. After nearly 2 years of tweaking, making mistakes, fixing those mistakes, and then making even more mistakes, I finally feel qualified to give you advice.
In light of this experience, I now present “11 Crucial Things An Ubuntu Newbie Should Know”.
Commands
1. ps -A: One of the reasons I hated Windows so much was the task manager. When a program would hang, you’d have to open task manager, tell it to kill the program, and wait 5 minutes for the system to kill the application, All the while, it would bog down the processor, hog memory, and be an overall nuisance. 50% of the time, you would have to restart the computer to get the process to clear.
Not so in Ubuntu/Linux. All you have to kill a program is open the terminal, and type “ps -A”. This will pull up a list of all the processes currently running, with the name of the program, along with a 4-5 digit number next to it. Then, type “kill -9 PN” (PN should be substituted with the actual Process Number), and hit enter. This will kill the app, no questions asked. It will not ask you any questions, or give you any excuses. That program is now dead, until the time you decide to resurrect it. This will not work with things like Apache, or other process daemons. If you’re not sure, just try to kill it. If it doesn’t die, then it is probably a daemon. You will have to find the actual documentation to stop the daemon.
Bonus tip: In Ubuntu (Gutsy and later), the command to stop Apache is: sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 stop To restart: sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 start
2. gksudo nautilus: Nautilus is the GUI-based file browser for Gnome, which is the default window manager for Ubuntu. If you are not used to the command line, this command will save you hours when it comes to file operations. Well, it will only save you hours for things that have to be done as root. Things like special system configuration, and other things where you need upgraded privileges will be much faster when you use this command.
Just open the terminal, type “gksudo nautilus”, enter your password, and magically you can do anything you want. For faster access, right click the Desktop, select “create launcher”, enter “gksudo nautilus” as the command. You can now click the shortcut on your Desktop, rather than opening the terminal and entering a command each time you need access to Nautilus.
3. dmesg: If you have managed to really mess something up, or are having trouble getting things to work, you may need someone with greater experience to take a look. Typing “dmesg” in your terminal window will call up all the messages from your system kernel. Copy and paste this into a text document, attach it to an email, and let a true expert get a look at what is going on with your hardware.
Upgrades:
4. Ubuntu’s package manager, Synaptic, is a GUI front-end for Aptitude. What you don’t know is that Synaptic is set to run in what could be called “safe-mode”. It will not go get the latest and greatest versions of the software you are running. It will get the last (often 6 months older) version of the software you want to run. You can upgrades faster by enabling optional software repositories.
To do this, open Synaptic (System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager), then select Settings > Repositories. Once you are in the repositories window, select the “Updates” tab. The Ubuntu “security” and “recommended updates” repository have already been selected. To get the newer stuff, you need to check “backports” and “proposed” software. Apply, and reload. This should get most of your software up to date, along with the kernel.
5. The kernel: While having the latest and greatest stable kernel can improve system performance, it can also break little fixes you have made along the way. An example: I had gone through the painstaking process of editing some configuration files to get my webcam to work. The last kernel update overwrote the changes I had made, and in the process, disabled my webcam. This can get irritating, but eventually a kernel release might fix an issue on its own, so I guess it is an ok, if not completely lossless tradeoff.
6. Upgrading to the newest version of Ubuntu: Don’t do it right away. Always give a new version at least two months in regular use before you decide to upgrade. I have tried to upgrade for 3 releases now, in the first two weeks of availability for the upgrade. Each time, there has been a major failure, mostly in the area of graphics and sound. If your release is stable, there is no reason to upgrade right away, other than a few minor changes in speed and stability. You forfeit these if you upgrade on the first day of a new release. You have been warned.
Got Help?:
7. You can Google it: If you haven’t googled it, do not trounce into a forum and ask the question. People are nice, but they really can’t stand laziness. If you have searched, and can’t find it, it may be a more advanced question that really needs more expert analysis.
Here’s the search formula that reaps the best rewards for me: [manufacturer] [model] [problem] [ubuntu distribution]…(e.g. sony vaio webcam installation hardy). You can vary this formula a little bit, as sometimes it takes a few searches to get the hang of it. The one thing that you should not change is having your version of the distribution in the search. The reason is that fixes, and places where applications install can be different depending on the version you are using. This will ensure that you receive the best solution possible.
8. The Forums: Most of the time, Googling the problem will send you to the Ubuntu forums. Get a user name, log in, and be respectful. Be sure you try everything they tell you to before griping that it won’t work. The help and advice is free, and usually very helpful in nature.
9. Launchpad: This is a bug reporting service that Ubuntu users use to get bugs and various other problems fixed. You can reach the project at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu . Once you get there, click on report a bug, and follow the instructions. Be sure the problem has not been reported already, as they will ask. Provide as much information about the incident as possible. They will keep you posted on the progress as far as the problem being resolved, and assign a priority rating based on the severity of the problem. I’ve had to use it 2 or 3 times. Even the minor problems have been resolved in 2-3 weeks.
10. Don’t Be Afraid To Break It
This is the most important rule. This ain’t your Granny’s china. Stuff will break, you will be the one to break it. You will also be the one fixing it, along with your friend Google. Be patient, be persistent, and walk away for a bit if the solution just won’t come. Vindication will come, and when the fix is done properly, or you changed a variable that caused performance to increase, there will a mountaintop rush. Chances are, your significant other won’t care, but that won’t matter. Feel free to prance around in your boxers, and act like you just won the Nobel Prize.
11. Everything in Windows can be replaced with Open Source software: Really, it can. It takes a little time to find it, but when you do, a whole new world will open up. You’ll start to see how things work better than you expected. Things will play that would not on Windows, you’ll be able to open every attachment you ever wanted to. Productivity will increase, thereby giving you more time to make your system work faster, and work on your own open source program.
I can’t include everything I’ve learned over the past two years here. There are some other articles that I have written on software packages, and the pros and cons of each. Just google my name and iSnare to get a full list of what I have written on the subject. In conclusion, have fun with Ubuntu, share your knowledge with others, and fear God. Seriously.
That’s all the advice I have for you.

Maybe domination is too strong a word. Maybe not. The market conditions for Linux are as favorable as they have ever been. Apple and Microsoft have weaknesses that are either plainly evident, or will be revealed soon.
The general public is becoming more technologically savvy in general, and beginning to understand their options. There are just a few things that stand in the way of the general public’s adoption of the operating system, in my opinion. We’ll tackle Linux’s greatest opportunities and the weaknesses that can and do slow down its adoption as a mainstream OS.
Let’s start with the favorable environment: Microsoft is really hurting with Vista. I mean badly. They’ve made an operating system that has locked itself out of all but the new PC market. Then, it nags you like a small child each time you need install a program, or download something, or sync your mp3 player. The business market will hardly touch this. Now, they’ve hired Jerry Seinfeld to fix it all. Somebody needs to tell them that just because he idolizes Superman, doesn’t mean he is Superman. Microsoft looks tired. They should probably just release an OS called XPlus( for the uninitiated, that would be XP SP4.)
Apple, while gaining market share and shooting at Microsoft, is now worth more than Google. There are problems that lie down the path of growth. Apple has always bragged about security, and the fact that you don’t need anti-virus for their systems. My computer teacher( millenia ago ) told me it wasn’t needed for one simple reason: Crackers(known to the general public as “hackers”) didn’t find it very profitable to crack a MAC. The adoption rate was too low. Now that the adoption rate has increased, the prospect of savaging bragadocious fanboys is almost irresistible. What could be better than humiliating the arrogant, artsy crowd?
Then there’s the fact that Microsoft seems a kindly old grandfather when it comes to openness. Steve Jobs holds his cards ridiculously close to his chest. While this might not bother the average user, it will get on the nerves of those who want complete control of their system. Apple has tighter DRM than Microsoft, and has recently come under fire for their invisible software upgrades. It won’t take long for the more adventurous user to download another OS and find other programs to meet her needs.
Linux has made great strides because of one flavor of their operating system: Ubuntu. Talk all you want about how Debian, Fedora, and SUSE are the pure, unadulterated nectar of the Linux gods. Mark Shuttleworth’s Canonical has made Linux palatable for the average user. The install process is simple, it’s free, and adding programs is a snap using Synaptic. Wireless support is vastly better in this distro, as is printer support. Plus, it boasts the largest Linux community.
That community tends to write programs that solve extremely specific problems. They are also writing programs that meet or exceed closed source, commercially available software. This is the most vital thing for the continued growth of Linux as an operating system.
The security problems for Linux are almost non-existent at present time. It’s pretty air tight, not to say that it can’t be done, it’s just that it is far more profitable to hack internet communications than it is to hack a Linux box. Plus, the Linux community will track you down and make you eat your hard drive if you take out one of their PC’s. This may change as well, with broader adoption, but right now I am not worried about some Windoze script kiddie hacking my box.
If all this is true, then what stands in the way of further Linux adoption?
Sound. I bet you thought I was going to say “the command line”. We’ll get to that later. Linux sound is a pain to configure, and is really horrible if you want to run more than one program that requires sound output. There are a couple of different ways to implement sound in Linux. Some of them are stable, some are not. In 50% of all cases, one application’s sound will work, while another will not. Yesterday, I ran into a case where a sound server actually kept an entire application from running. Until Linux converts to a single, common sound architecture, then it will keep the average user dependent on…
The command line. You knew it was coming, I gave you fair warning. I enjoy the command line, to a certain extent. It allows me to instantly kill a program when it hangs, no questions asked. I can edit configuration files without opening a text editor. Just today, an article came across my screen, in which the author stated that you could use Linux forever without having to touch the command line. While technically true, that assertion is misleading, at best. All help articles in Linux forums start with, or assume you have already opened the command line. If you need to fix something, you will be using the CL, or you will not be using Linux very long.
This is something that people are going to have to come to terms with, unless Linux kernels and library sources are closed. What will hopefully happen is a more accessible command line integrated into the various window managers as part of the default configuration. Predictive commands(and the ability for expert users to turn this feature off) should play a huge roll when delivering the rollout to the average user. The final holdup is…
Developers, Developers, Developers. So we laughed at Steve “MonkeyBoy” Ballmer during his outburst of “irrational exuberance”. Major developers of closed-source software will have to get on board for the full adoption of Linux. Even though I love to GIMP, and am huge devotee, I miss the incredible batch processing abilities, and clean interface of Photoshop CS3(GIMPShop doesn’t cut it). I just do. I miss Flash. I don’t want to dual boot, or use WINE. I want a natively run solution. That is what is currently missing in the Linux equation. I want a peanut butter sandwich, not a bologna sandwich. Just because you can eat it, doesn’t mean you enjoy it as much. The common Windows user feels a far greater fear than I do in this regard, and they won’t give up their familiar programs and OS without a serious fight.
For every flaw, Linux has thousands of advantages. Linux will become a major player on the OS scene, has(and will) be the greatest bridge on the path to platform independent software and cloud computing. It will. The question is, how soon will we, as the Linux community, stop arguing over whose distro is better, and have a conversation about which path it will take to domination as an operating system.

There are many valid reasons to switch from Microsoft Windows to Ubuntu Linux. Both the average computer user and corporations can benefit from the switch to Ubuntu. Do not worry if you have never heard of Ubuntu, I will briefly introduce you to the best free Linux distribution available.

The name of the Operating System is an African word which means,

As a business consultant, web designer and photographer my technical know-how around doing system administration on my Microsoft desktop is limited and sometimes I do require the assistant of my computer engineering son to get it right. In a Microsoft Environment, keeping updated with respect to potential security breaches and patches is a constant vigil. The rigor of keeping current with OS updates, Norton updates and Spyware updates is time consuming. Valuable business hours each week are spend and lost on this task of self-administration dictated by the Microsoft Operating Environment.

So with the purchase of an IBM T40 (a tough notebook), increasing system administration time was not an option. This alone forced an serious consideration of Linux as an alternative operating environment. That was five years ago. Now an established Linux user, I can clearly profess the capabilities and benefits of Linux for small and large businesses, especially, when it comes to notebook deployment.What Linux variant is best for small business and notebook deployment in your company?

As a small and medium business development manager with Sun Microsystems, exposure to Linux and the debate around its viability was a daily event. Questioning and challenging the virtues of Open Source (FREE) Linux versus Licensed Linux versions like Red Hat and Novell SuSE continues to this day . After years of personal use of Open Source (Free) Linux, I can never go back to running the Microsoft Operating Environment on my notebook. And once you can get Linux versions of Quick books, Quick Tax and Picasa (now available on Linux), there is no reason to stay in that perpetual administrative nightmare world of Microsoft.

Having successfully deployed two Open Source Linux variants on my IBM T40 notebook over the last 5 years, a compelling comparison can be made between Fedora and Ubuntu. Fedora, the Open Source version of Red Hat, required the installation expertise of some Linux gurus from Belleville Ontario. It worked fine, but required some Linux ninja system administration every 6-9 months. Administration items applied during these visits included upgrades to Open Office (the open source version of Star Office), Linux OS fixes and new peripheral drivers. This, again, turned out to be a drain on my scarce time for doing real business.

Now the Linux called Ubuntu is installed on my notebook. Ubuntu by Canonical is a full Open Source Linux based on Debian Linux. Ubuntu is now available on Dell systems and Federal Governments are adding this Linux operating environment to their list of standard available OS’s for all desktop and notebook computers.

Right out of the gate, Ubuntu was simple to install. You could even bring down a trial copy to experience exactly how it would behave on your notebook before downloading and committing the Ubuntu OS environment to your machine. But the best part is that Ubuntu continuously keeps on top of OS and all related application software updates. Ubuntu has an Update Manager that magically appears in desktop tool bar. And with a simple click (and password) you are kept current on the latest versions of Ubuntu patches, any Linux application software you have installed from Canonical and Open Office upgrades.

With Linux rebooting your machine after an update is nearly non-existent.

Oh, as an added treat with Ubuntu, Ubuntu boots up on your machine in less than a minute. I still go get a coffee when my Microsoft desktop is booting up. An additional benefit of Ubuntu: there is no requirement for installing ant-virus and anti-spyware software. Ubuntu inherently repels these vial scourges of the internet.

With Ubuntu your system administration life will become simple and painless. You can spend more quality business hours selling and marketing.Want to cut hidden costs in your organization that manifest themselves as Microsoft self-administration by your end users?

Ubuntu is a must for you or your IT folks to consider. Seriously consider, test and deploy.

Windows Vista looks fantastic but I’ve always been disappointed by a somewhat lacklustre performance, especially at startup. Certain that my super quick PC could do much much more, I decided to take the plunge and install the Linux-based OS along side Windows Vista.Ubuntu Hardy Heron was released in late April, 2008 and is the best version of Ubuntu so far. The key reason I felt it was time to give it a try was the press coverage of the Wubi installer. Wubi is this neat little installation package that lets you install Ubuntu from Windows, on the same partition as your current installation. It even sets up a dual boot configuration so you can quickly and easily restart your computer and return to Vista. Ubuntu has an amazing 3d desktop option called Compiz that allows you to rotate your desktop in 3d! Want to create yourself an Ubuntu machine that can do this?Here’s a list of features available, and a basic installation guide. I’ve referenced useful guides where possible:Ubuntu