It's been about one week since I installed Linux on my Dell 700m laptop. Since then, I have yet to use it to write a paper or do anything too out of the ordinary. I have noticed a few things that are nice about Ubuntu. It makes me wonder what halleucinogenic drug the Windows team must be smoking/inhaling/freebasing/eating/dropping when they decided to not include a feature that a user-created operating system sports.
- Everything looks clean. I can't quite put my finger on it. I would describe OS X as "slick," but Ubuntu merits the adjective "clean" or "refined." It took a little getting used to, but now I much prefer this new Linux UI to the Windows UI. The jury is still out on OS X vs. Ubuntu. (Note: Technically, Ubuntu uses a modified Gnome UI. This isn't too important, but some of the more hardcore readers would call me out on that.
- The way Ubuntu manages the computer feels right. Whenever I plug in my AC adapter to charge my battery in Windows, my taskbar (dock?) would inform me that my laptop was "charging." No shit. Ubuntu gives me an estimated time to charge to 100%. It's obviously never spot on, but it usually comes within 10 minutes.
- The commandline. Being my nerdly self, I usually have a commandline terminal open. I've also aliased all of the programs I use to quick shortcuts. All I have to do is type "firefox" into the terminal and blickity-blam, firefox opens. Nothign revolutionary, but it takes significantly less time than grabbing my mouse, moving it to the start menu, clicking, finding the Firefox icon, and then clicking again.
- Installing system components. Ubuntu didn't come with everything I wanted (what OS does?) so I had to install some extra stuff. There's a nifty little program inside of several Linux kernels called the "Synaptic Package Manager" or something similar. It has a database of (almost) every program for Linux. All you have to do is check a box, it does the rest. And it does it oh so well.
Stay tuned, I have to write a paper sometime this week. I'm sure I'll have plenty to report then.
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