Linux Review

Hey everyone, Danny here. At Pat's suggestion I decided to dual-boot linux on my laptop to help with Pure Data. I've always heard good things about Linux, but also that it can be difficult for new users. The Ubuntu website made things incredibly simple through a .exe installer that did all of the work for me. Once this was set up I did run into some problems where my wireless card and sound card were not properly supported. With some help from Antoine (thanks again!) I was able to get the drivers I needed. Although over my head at the time, the wide variety of options you had through the command console was pretty amazing.

It did take a little while to get used to the Linux interface, having been so accustomed to the windows desktop. However, there were some things that I instantly fell in love with. The Ubuntu Software center was the easiest way to get new programs that I've ever seen. Rather than having to search on the internet for new programs and applications, I could use this little program to instantly install whatever I needed. A huge improvement over windows. Within minutes I was able to get most of the free programs I had on windows up and running on Ubuntu. This would have taken me at least an hour on windows.

All this being said, Linux does take some getting used to, especially dealing with the fact that there are no .exe files. Of course, this is not a problem, but it is annoying if you're trying to download something that, unbeknown to you, is not comparable with Linux. Like I said earlier, most of my problems came from having to adjust to something new, like not knowing where to find some of my saved files. I had saved one of my projects from Pure Data and it completely disappeared, I had no idea where it saved, even after looking for some time.

I'm pretty good with computers and have a fair bit of knowledge about how operating systems work, however much of the really attractive aspects of Linux are still a bit above my head. Pat showed me some cool stuff like the Package finder, but I'm not quite sure I could know how to use something like this right away without doing some reading on it. And of course, the command console seemed way better than the console in Windows, but I don't know enough about code to make it work for me. And of course, one of the more interesting capabilities of Linux is that you can assemble some programs from scratch and tailor them to your needs, but once again, I don't have the knowledge yet to do that.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised at how user-friendly Linux was. I'm happy that I'm dual booting it off my laptop now, because I'm curious to learn more about it. Would I use it as my primary operating system? No, not yet, but mainly because I'm not fluent in programming enough to squeeze the maximum use out of it. But if you really need an operating system and you don't feel like shelling out the big bucks for Windows or OSX, then you can rest easy knowing that Ubuntu is pretty easy to use.