(no subject)
Kids should have a 13-year larval stage where they're a dog, then one day you find their dog skin shedded off in the living room and they're running around the house nekkid lookin for biscuits and getting into the garbage.
I'm posting from my shiny new ubuntu install, it's pretty sweet. It uses the GNOME desktop environment, which allows me to customize every little thing about my desktop. I can have as many "start" bars as I want, and I can put whatever I want on them wherever I think is best. I've always wanted more space for my opened applications buttons, so I've got a whole panel at the top dedicated to that. There's a whole host of useful things and gadgets that you can embed in your panels, from eyes that follow your mouse to a dictionary to custom menus. It also recognized all of my hardware from the start and had drivers for everything; with windows I had to find and install all my drivers manually. If dell didn't track my system and make all the proper drivers available it would have taken me hours. It's not exceptionally fast in and of itself, but some of the applications it comes with are very lightweight. Abiword loads in about 2 seconds, and i'm told it functions just as well as ms word, although I haven't really used it yet. It's missing a grammar checker, that's the only big thing. OpenOffice writer has a grammar checker, but it's quite a bit more sluggish. I've used open-source software before, most notably for all of last summer, and it does have its quirks. But most of them only show up when you start interacting with proprietary software, so it's not necessarily the open-source software's fault. Proprietary software just got there first and everyone else has to do their best to be compatible. The biggest glaring drawback to using a linux-based OS is that a lot of software is not yet available for it. There are open-source versions of everything important, drivers and office suites and the like, but games and scientific software and more obscure stuff not so much. For games we have "Puppytron", "Eric's Ultimate Solitaire", and lets not forget "Ancient Domains of Mystery." Yes. Good. Thank you linux community. But overall I am quite pleased.
I'm posting from my shiny new ubuntu install, it's pretty sweet. It uses the GNOME desktop environment, which allows me to customize every little thing about my desktop. I can have as many "start" bars as I want, and I can put whatever I want on them wherever I think is best. I've always wanted more space for my opened applications buttons, so I've got a whole panel at the top dedicated to that. There's a whole host of useful things and gadgets that you can embed in your panels, from eyes that follow your mouse to a dictionary to custom menus. It also recognized all of my hardware from the start and had drivers for everything; with windows I had to find and install all my drivers manually. If dell didn't track my system and make all the proper drivers available it would have taken me hours. It's not exceptionally fast in and of itself, but some of the applications it comes with are very lightweight. Abiword loads in about 2 seconds, and i'm told it functions just as well as ms word, although I haven't really used it yet. It's missing a grammar checker, that's the only big thing. OpenOffice writer has a grammar checker, but it's quite a bit more sluggish. I've used open-source software before, most notably for all of last summer, and it does have its quirks. But most of them only show up when you start interacting with proprietary software, so it's not necessarily the open-source software's fault. Proprietary software just got there first and everyone else has to do their best to be compatible. The biggest glaring drawback to using a linux-based OS is that a lot of software is not yet available for it. There are open-source versions of everything important, drivers and office suites and the like, but games and scientific software and more obscure stuff not so much. For games we have "Puppytron", "Eric's Ultimate Solitaire", and lets not forget "Ancient Domains of Mystery." Yes. Good. Thank you linux community. But overall I am quite pleased.