Migrating from Windows to Ubuntu.

I've been using computers for a quite a long time now, approximately 15 years. All these years I've been living with windows. I've been working in platforms,

MS-DOS

Windows 3.1

Windows 95

Windows 98

Windows Me

Windows 2000

Windows xp

Windows vista

Windows 7

That's the evoultion of windows. :)

But now due to the evolution of IT and due to the field that I'm working in, which is Engineering, I found it is necessary to start learning how to use Linux.

So I googled, whcich is the default way of learning new thing (anything) nowadays. So I learnt that the best version to start using is Ubuntu.

I downloaded Ubuntu and installed it as another OS. So now I have both Windows and Ubuntu. I feel very safe this way, coz Ubuntu is all new for me and I prefer to swim in the shallow befor moving into the deep.

Basically, installation was far more easier than on Windows, just had to run the file, and reboot. Logging on to the system was also very quick compared to Windows. The screen was cool. :)

But since it was my first time in Ubuntu I wanted to read some articles, so I read about the 'terminal' and felt kinda cool to be typing commands in a geeky manner rather than using the GUI. I had to install softwares and drivers also.

I installed Google chrome, Skype, VLC player to start with; and the installation process was also very much different. You have a separte option called a Ubuntu Software Center where you can install stuff, and the installation process is also very simple. But I really don't know where they are on the disk :D.

Later I started noticing the cons,

First of all, my hp touchpad driver was not seemed to be working. Actually the right click is not working. So as everyone else, I googled it and downloaded a patch. Then I had to use the command line or the terminal; after a long time I used the command line in an OS, but it was cool, techy and I liked it. But still I can't switch my touch pad off like I did in Windows, which makes typing long articles harder.

The next problem was 'my bluetooth' is not working, same issue, I could not find compatible drivers yet. It is really not an issue with Ubuntu, rather an issue regarding hp. They announced that they may not be releasing drivers for Linux for there hp pvillion notebooks, sadly which is my case.

Apart from uncompatibility issues, I really like working in that new environment. It is quick, not user friendly and techy. One of the gratest feature it adds is, it has multiple worksapces, if I say it in Windows language, many desktops. So organizing work, and multitasking is pretty easy.

Currently, I am in the process of learning Ubuntu, and right now I can do almost all the general things I can do on windows in Ubuntu.

We'll see.

Pradeepa