Ubuntu or not Ubuntu? That is the question.

So I've returned to Linux, not that I'd been away really, but now a decision had to be made, which system, and Linux came out on top. It won on a number of issues, these being security, adaptability, and not being dictated to. Now comes the question of which flavour Linux? Back to the familiar, a choice of Ubuntu, because "it just works", Fedora because it has great backing, and debian because it is one of the most stable. I am looking for something that I can set up with a minimal fuss, works with the hardware I have, and can interconnect and work with the other stuff I have, phones, tablets, cameras, audio players, a NAS and a TV. The three above should be able to do this. The hardware I have is a Lenevo Thinkpad R61 laptop with Intel everything, which makes life a little easier as Intel has fairly good support in Linux.
I first tried Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. I decided on the LTS version as I didn't want it fully cutting edge with updates all the time and a virtual reinstall every 6 months. Set up was easy except for the wireless card being slow and needed some adjustment to get it up to speed, thank you Ubuntu Forums for helping. The Unity desktop took a little getting used to. I liked the way the menus moved to the top bar in a mac-esque way when moused over, but not all apps obeyed. Everything else was the normal Ubuntu experience of being pleasant and fairly efficient. Personal rating 7.5 out 10.

Next up was Fedora 17.

Just Linux

In 1999 I first discovered GNU/Linux. I had come across a CD on the cover of a magazine. It could boot into a new and different operating system. I still have that CD! I was amazed by it. It would run my little laptop in memory (192Mb) faster than Win98 on the hard drive. Then I found a magazine in Australia with Red Hat 7.1 on the front (and I still have these CD's too). This I installed onto my laptop. It took three days to configure and get everything working and then - wow - what a laptop. My little Toshiba Satellite had a P3 processor running at 700 MHz, 192 Mb ram and a 30 Gb hard drive, and it would out perform PCs and laptops of better hardware running the latest from Redmond. I was happy. I eventually gave it to a good home running SimplyMepis, a Debian based Linux OS. I have played and got to know well the Red Hat/Fedora system, the Debian system (and various derivatives), a little bit of Suse, Mandrake/Mandriva, Slackware, Puppy, and some embedded ones too.
Since then I have had to use Windows OS's for a lot of work stuff because my clients and/or employers uses Windows based systems. OK, so now I'm going to have a pop at Windows, and what I found was that it is slow and gets slower over time, it is inherently insecure and you have to install extra software to protect your stuff, it is clunky, and I just don't like to pay for something that is basically incomplete and has known flaws. But it does work and can be made to behave and be relatively secure. I still don't like using Windows and I refuse to do my banking on a windows machine. Just my opinion. I now run Windows in a vm just for testing purposes.
I have used OSX on a Macbook Pro, along side my trusty ThinkPad R61, for a few years as a way to get away from Windows. I needed to use Adobe CS4 which meant either Windows or OSX, and I chose OSX. This was a good learning experience for me for as good as the Mac is, it too has its limitations, mainly imposed by Apple slowly building their walled garden with their increasingly dictatorial and arrogant views on how we should use their products. May be we should just employ Apple to do our work for us! I also run Debian on the Macbook and it runs really well.
And now I'm ready to sell the Mac and live with Linux only!
Next up: Debian, Ubuntu or Fedora? Ubuntu or not Ubuntu, that is the question!