Ubuntu 7.10 (PC Edition)

I procured my copy of ubuntu directly from canonical about 2 months ago, after a few weeks of messing around with it I decided to wait for the lts release. the program itself is awesome, its efficient aesthetically pleasing and most certainly superior to windows. Unfortunately 7.10 is notorious for having issues with propreitary hardware from HP Pavillion laptops. I fought with my broadcom drivers for about 2 weeks trying to get them to work. and the nvidia. In the end I was still having issues with various files and hardware. 8.04 was just released thursday and it is phenominal. i had no problems logging on, I didn't have to enter exceptions to the logon script and i didn't have issue with the graphics or sound. But most importaintly I didn't have nearly as much trouble with the hardware in my computer.
The best thing about Ubuntu is that you have a dedicated group of people on [...] that walk you through any issues you have with the system. I truly do look forward to joining to assist as soon as I can get a hang of the system, they have been truly helpful everytime i've had an issue.
Canonical states that they want to bring the Ubuntu philosophy of goodwill to others to the software world. They have succeeded admirably with this operating system. And as for Mr. Jobs and Mr. Gates, keep an eye out because Ubuntu is superior to both mac os and windows by leaps and bounds and is free as opposed to 200.00 a release.

I tried 7.10 a few weeks ago but had a few monitor problems. Some monitor types it doesn't recognise. I first tried it with a live boot up CD and I just got a load of rubbish on the monitor. I found that if I rebooted but pressed F1 and chose one of the options which allowed me to enter commands (I entered [live vga=771 noapic nolapic] it booted up fine with no monitor problems. But not a practical option.

I now use the new Ubuntu version 8.04 which I have no problems with. It's the prerelease LTS version and it certainly beats XP.

If I were just learning Ubuntu and had subsequent experience with Window Vista, It would be difficult for me to understand why anyone would even consider the latter OS as preferable, given the vast array of Linux software at minimal if any expense compared to the constant, time consuming, and budget breaking upkeep of Windows programs and the price of many additional applications one may wish to add. Open source software and Linux have provided the opposite experience. Happily my Windows Vista crashed on my year old laptop and without the Windows Vista OS disk that is no longer supplied with a computer purchase, I was "forced" to again resort to Linux, and I had forgotten just how great the Ubuntu program is. I say a silent thanks to all those folks who gave us Linux and Ubuntu and who continue to develop a superb OS for all of us to use.

One additional brief anecdotal comment- I note some complaints regarding wireless speed and connectivity- I have had no such problems on my system.

I installed it in a virtual machine. It works fine, but the virtual software has some issues. I'm using this as a learning tool on using Linux. So far, so so.

I am a graduate student of astronomy and I started using personal computers in 1981 and that was one of the first IBM PCs with DOS. Until summer of 2005, I used Windows exclusively, but then started looking for something better in the form of Linux/Free Unix. December of 2007, I switched my home network over to Ubuntu Linux and purchased a Dell computer with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed. That was the last time I touched a Windows computer:
Best things about switching to Ubuntu Linux:

No more viruses to worry about, Ubuntu is FREE, Complete install and configuration can be done in minutes (Windows used to take me days to get it completely configured), updates are optional at the user's discretion, By contrast, Microsoft pushes updates to you whether you want them or not. With Ubuntu, Every 6 months you have new major release with exciting new features you can try. I love the silly names for Ubuntu Releases:"Gutsy Gibbon" is the current release and "Hardy Heron" is next in April of 2008 with lots of new stuff to play with. Ubuntu works particularly well with older hardware and can be used to resurrect an old Dell or Gateway or other dinosaur computers that you have sitting around gathering dust. Windows Vista release was an expensive DISASTER plain and simple, get Ubuntu and try it today...I bet you have an old computer that would love to live again, re-incarnate it with Ubuntu...did I mention it is FREE? For grins I recently built a computer from scratch for under 200 dollars and installed Ubuntu Linux on it...worked no problem...I am no wizard either...if I can do it so can you...