Windows 7, Ubuntu 11.10, Oh my!

   Okay, so many people have asked me what I do in my free time, so, here I go... I read and I write, I also work on my RP skills and I try to stay as fit as possible. But I also do many geek things. You know, I should do a show and call it "You know you're a geek if..."! I think every geek in the world just died when they red that. So, for me, the first one would be: "You know you're a geek if you install Ubuntu in a virtual machine in your free time". That's right, today I installed Ubuntu 11.10 (codenamed Ocelot) on my Windows 7 machine using vmWare Player 4.0.

The ups of having two operating systems

   Now I know a lot of you will ask me: "Why do you need two OS'ess?" And my answer will be: "Because one thing or another on my PC doesn't work like it should, plus, I promised you guys that I'd do a few Ubuntu tutorials".

Ubuntu... Why do you have such a long freaking name?

   Okay, another thing a lot of people don't like about, and I, myself also don't like, Ubuntu is their names... Windows has had most numbers (i.e. 7, 97, 3, 1...); Mac always had names for OS X (o-ess-ten), but they were simple (i.e. Lion, Snow Leopard, Tiger...); Ubuntu.... never had just one or the other... it was always something like: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin)... COME ON! Why do you  need such a long title? Anyway... moving on...

What is in Ubuntu that is so important to people like me and you?

   Well... mostly it's the price. Ubuntu is FREE (and you can get it here) whereas Windows is about $150 for basic, but to go way up, it's about $300 (which is mad!). Now Mac you HAVE TO buy a Mac to legally use Mac OS X (now known just as OS X).
   The second best thing about the big 'U' is that all of your drivers are already there... now I have a M-AUDIO PRODUCER USB from Avid that I had some troubles with, but soon got it working. I use a WLAN card in my computer (my big lug) to get internet access and haven't had any issues using Ubuntu. When I first installed Windows 7, I was forced to manually instal the software for the ASUS ePCI card.

Windows vs. Ubuntu... who gets it, and who doesn't?

   Well, here we are at our final question... What is worth your time and money? Windows is a GREAT gaming platform (expecally with dX12 coming out later this year)! Though you may not like how it looks, there are many personalization plans out there... most for free. Ubuntu has a great look right from the box and is awesome for older PC's! It takes very little space for the OS (only about 4.4 GB) and usually takes only a minimum of 300 MB of RAM! Windows, however, requires a lot more of both. I personally use both because not all of my software is available for Ubuntu (which is a Linux OS) that I use on Windows.

The endgame

   So, what's my opinion? Well I feel that if your machine is older, and you want to try something new, go for Ubuntu! But if you're a Mac or Windows fanboy (which is okay) you should try Ubuntu first either in a virtual machine, or from the CD (NOTE: the speed won't be accurate if using the CD b/c it's on a CD) before jumping head first into it. Now, if you do switch there are some awesome items in the Ubuntu Software Center (now just called Software Center) that will cover for your current items on your desktop. And as always, make sure to back up your data in case you do switch back to Windows or Mac.

I want to thank you all for reading, and I will see you in our next article. I'm @wolfboy_kamots on twitter and you can view all of my 'Follow me' sites on each page of Wolfboy.NET!