Coffee Dharma

The Linux Challenge Finale

Posted on 15. Nov, 2007 by Rob in All, Musings, Older, Review

About a month ago I decided to give Linux a real try. I had dabbled a few times before in years past but had never taken the time to really learn the ins and outs of the Linux experience. For the past two weeks I have stayed mostly within Linux, starting with Fedora, trying a few other distros, and settling on Ubuntu. I have to say the overall experience was surprising and great. I found Linux to be a great alternative for older machines, a powerful desktop that was relatively simple to work with, and a beautiful experience for customizing and gaining control of my desktop.

What I did learn was that while Linux offers a powerful tool for many users it is not ready for daily use with many artists, gamers, and specialists in some fields. As far as web and office tools were concerned I found Linux to have some wonderful programs and the ease of use was something I didn’t expect. I could see myself as a basic user living within Linux easily. The downfall came when I tried to move from Adobe’s CS3 suite to GIMP and the like. GIMP is a great achievement by the open source community but Photoshop it ain’t. I was able to do most of the basics within GIMP rather quickly but found more advanced tools difficult to use and lacking in extras. Adobe asks a steep price for their software but it has become the industry leader for a reason. Maybe some day Adobe will develop for Linux and fill this gap, though I don’t believe it is likely.

Obviously gaming is lacking in the Linux environment. I am not an avid gamer so this was not a problem for me. I did miss my Half-Life time though and Wine integration was horrid at best.

There are a few other tools I greatly missed as well. I use Windows Live Writer for my blog and did not find anything close to an equal within Linux. The ease of WordPress support within Live Writer has me addicted.

I find myself using Vista once again as my daily OS but have also found myself fondly attached to Linux now. I have kept my Ubuntu install and plan to visit it often as a learning tool and an incredible alternative when Windows burns me out. The speed, efficiency, options, and visuals of Linux are some of the best I have ever seen. For most average users I highly recommend using it and for the rest I think having at a second companion to Windows or OS X a great experience. There is no need to have unwavering loyalty to any OS in this day in age. Use all the tools available to you to make you work experience the best it can be. There will always be fanboys of any system but maybe if we just took the time to give another side a real try we would fin they all have something powerful to offer.

Tags: Linux, Musings, News, Review, Software, Tech, Ubuntu