I’ve been wanting to run Linux since I read Neal Stephenson’s “In the Beginning Was the Command Line.“ After putting that book down, I immediately installed open office. I lasted a few days. Then I gave up.
My philosophy on computers is that I want them to work and I don’t want to think too much about it. (Thinking is the first sign of a problem.) And open office demanded far too much thought. Every time I wanted to do something, I needed to think about it. The whole thing was roughly as intuitive as fingering a hippo.
Sure, it had a lot to recommend it but I’m an idiot.
Since then, I’ve been waited for a Linux that even a moron could use. The day has been getting close for a while — there was no way I was going to switch to Microsoft’s VISTA –and, just last week, when my computer crashed and burned, that day finally came. Fuck Windows, I thought. Fuck them to death.
If you make a product that’s prone to destruction, that’s fine. Just don’t expect me to buy it, use it or have anything to do with it. That sort of thing terminates our relationship. I’ll move on.
If I needed any further encouragement, it came when I bought my laptop. I was more or less sure that the XP upon it was pirated. And the last thing I need in my life is bunch of nagging from Microsoft.
I decided that now was the moment.
It was time to finally go Linux.
And last night I did.
I installed Ubuntu.
So far, so good. I much prefer it to any Windows OS I’ve every used and I’ve never liked Macs. They’re just too smarmy.
So far, Ubuntu is reasonably intuitive, looks good, allows easy customization, is ideologically correct and is free. Unlike that old open office, I can actually use this without constantly thinking about how to use this. Call me crazy, but that’s important.
My atitude may change but for now Ubuntu gets a hearty, “So far, so good.” And that’s about the best I ever expect.
1 comment
laurenarcher
December 13, 2008 at 12:34 pm (UTC -5)
Congrats
I too have been thinking of switching to Ubuntu for a long time, but had the same experience with Open Office (And then GIMP). I still might dual boot my Mac with Ubuntu but not until I have the free time to learn how to use it.
As Douglas Adams once said: “We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works.”
Douglas Adams loved Mac’s and I grew up on Douglas Adams so…