Ubuntu

With Microsoft Windows Vista costing $400 and crippled with anti-piracy activations many people have turned to distribution of Linux called Ubuntu. Linux was never easy to use or simple to configure until Ubuntu. It offers a GUI very similar to windows, a long history of being more secure than windows and best of all is free.

I recently tried Ubuntu 7.04 on my laptop. It can run live off the cd or install onto the hard drive. It comes with many of the same type of applications that you are used too. Open Office is a open source suite of office tools including a word processor, spreadsheet, database, and presentation application. They are similar to Microsoft Office. Gimp is included for photo editing, again it is very similar to Adobe Photoshop. There is xchat for a IRC client, Gaim for AIM networks, and lots of other programs. It can even read and write to NTFS partitions!

There are still some areas that need improving. The kernel doesn't support alot of wireless cards natively and needs an addon such as ndiswrapper. I tried to install this and it sorta worked but never did. There are still some issues with power management, and a few other problems. There needs to be a lot more GUI for many of the administrative tasks. Where is the GUI "device manager" where I can easily update drivers? I think that if these issues can be addressed and the distribution can continue to become more user friendly it will be a great alternative to MS Windows.