The Return of the Penguin
It is important that individuals recognise their role within communities,
and that they be generous of spirit because of this.
This is the essence of the African philosophy of ubuntu,
as espoused by Nelson Mandela after the decline of Appartheid.
Ubuntu is a distribution of Linux, produced by a company called Canonical. Linux is an Operating system (like Windows, MacOS, etc). Unlike with Windows, there are many companies producing their own Linux Distribution (or Distro).
I used Redhat Linux for a couple of years (1999-2001) but moved back to Windows when my late wife first moved in with me. For the last five years I've been using a Windows PC that we got together, but it was starting to slow and churn a bit. So, rather than reinstall/clean Windows, I decided to make the jump to Ubuntu, a currently popular distribution of the Linux Operating System. After deciding to stay with Ubuntu after only a week of testing, I thought I’d dedicate this sub-site to my migration and experiences.
Mobile phones provide a good analogy – you don't care what the operating system is as long as you can do what you want, and Whenever you change phones you get used to the new interface.
Everyone forgets that what they actually want to do is be productive, and that means running applications, not an operating system. So, if you can find all the applications you want and they run on Linux, then the next step is to decide if you want to pay for an operating system or have a free one which has lots of different looks and feels, including a few that look almost identical to Windows. Oh, and Linux is generally accepted to be inherently more stable and secure than Windows. That is why Linux is the most popular Operating System for computers running Internet services.
Linux is particularly useful for use on older equipment that struggles with Windows. There are many "distributions" of Linux, with variants within those distributions. The beauty is, you can probably find something you like. However, setting Linux up can be a bit daunting for a newcomer and shouldn't be tried unless you're confident, or have access to someone who is. This would be true of any installation of a new operating system, even Windows.
There are games available that run on Linux, and you can run some Windows and DOS applications (including games) through WINE and DOSbox, respectively. However, if you're addicted to your Windows games, then you're probably better off sticking with Windows, doing a clean install and then "hardening" your Windows installation with appropriate user accounts, firewall and AV software.
So where do you get all this free software and games for Linux? Ubuntu has a nice approach to this with Software Repositories which are available directly from the Applications menu. Just search for what you want and install it.
Before you now dash off and install Ubuntu, I'd suggest having a read through the excellent Pocket Guide linked in the table below. You can then get Ubuntu from their home page and post any questions in the helpful Community Forums. Remember, its just an operating system.
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