Can I please get some reviews on Ubuntu?

Question

I figure Ubuntu is an offspring of Linux (which I have never tried either), but I am definately interested in Windows-Alternative operating systems. I ordered a free copy of Ubutu and I just want some educated user reviews/recommendations. I am no expert on any computer topic, but I do know there has to be a windows alternative without all the bugs. Any pros and cons are greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Try the Ubuntu forums.  Lots of newcomers, lots of very knowledgeable people.  Join if you want to post questions.  http://ubuntuforums.org/

Answer 2

ubuntu is arguably the best linux distro out there. It is definitely the most popular.

Personally I dont like Gnome (the desktop) but its a simple matter to put KDE on it if you want a different environment. Linux is good like that.

When you get it, it wont play dvd's and some other media. You will need to install the codecs for it to be able to do this.

Pros of linux:

Free

Free software

Secure

Very customisable

Fun for Geeks (lots of learning opportunities)

Excellent support community

Cons:

Difficult to use

Terminal commands are irritating and arcane and unfortunately necessary if you want to be able to do much with it.

Not as much software as windows

Much of the software is lesser quality than windows software

Does not run much windows software well

Useless for gaming

Personally, If I wasnt a gamer and wanted a free, stable, secure os to do basic stuff like web surfing emailling and word processing Id have no qualms about using linux. As it stands, I like to play games, and its a family computer that my kids use so theres no option to use it, and we run XP because it lets us do what we want to do.

Linux is a lot of fun if you like playing with software and operating systems, and dont ming using a command line or a text editor occasionally. Its a monolythic pain in the butt if you're the sort of person who just likes it 'to work' out of the box without having to think too much.

Oh, and if you're planning on running windows software on it you might want to look here to see if itll run

http://appdb.winehq.org/

Answer 3

Pros:

* Incredibly customizable (see http://www.gnome-looks.org for themes, note that ubuntu only supports gtk 2.x by default, although you can install the emerald theme manager so you can use compiz themes)

* Very fast

* No viruses

* Comes with package manager, so you don't have to look around the web looking for programs that you need

* Really cool compiz effects that don't slow down your computer (as long as you have a half-way decent graphics card)

* Free

Cons:

* Can't run windows software (although wine can run some things, like photoshop cs2)

* Poor or non-existant drivers