Hi
Better late then never for a testimony
I have now, give or take a few weeks, been using Kubuntu for a year, and as the signature say - I'm now completely windoze free! I can't say I know Linux much at all, I'm not a coder nor do I work with computers(I do however assembly my own hardware and know the basics about command line, was using DOS on my fathers computer back in early 90's, can't say I remember much about it though).
During this year Kubuntu have done more or less everything I need to be doing on Kubuntu. As a windows transitioner it's not always a walk in park but as I have learned it's more due to differences between OS' then lack of software resources.
My first experience with Linux was however in around 2002 when I tried Mandrake with KDE (1.x ?, must have been KDE2 around 2002 according to distrowatch, but as I remember from what I remember it looked like, it looks more like KDE 1.x then 2.x ) I can't say I gave it much effort since my only intention was "to give that Linux thing", a try, I probably had seen this movie or maybe this one. From what I remember it I removed Mandrake since I couldn't get the network to function. I remember I printed out a 400 pages manual and burned 3-4 CDs with extra packages.
At about this time (or before)I started to use firefox, from what I remember it was a beta 0.97 and became intrigued with the whole FOSS philosophy and the user potential it gives. When people complain about that "Linux" doesn't do 'this and that' I always think that the same arguments was used when people complained about Firefox around ~2002,(much of it was rants because it didn't work the way they were used to, i.e IE ) ~3% user base then, today 25% or more use Firefox.
So 1½ year ago I had some major issues with my computer (running WinXP) and it crashed all the time, I think I installed Windows 15-20 times(repairing/check disks excluded) during a 6 month period, troubleshooting time was more then actual running time, I think I narrowed it down to HD failure(still not sure though)
Then I finally gave up and thought enough is enough, found the wubi-installer and gave it a go, still had the same trouble with the XP more or less ruining it, but finally got Ubuntu running with a LiveCD. I had so much trouble to adopt to the 'new ways' and looking at ubuntu-forums felt like a jungle (and still does in a way), simple things like settings in Gnome felt like a steep hill to climb.
So fed up with both Windoze and "Linux" I just wanted the most basic apps to run in a way I could comprehend(or at least change them to the way I wanted), I took the Kubuntu iso and gave it a spin, and simply found what I was looking for, 'the new way', became my way.
I plunged straight into Intrepid and the 'bug-pool' KDE 4.1(many seemed to hate it compared to 3.5) I just loved it, it worked the way I wanted, it felt stable and with every update it was more stable and mroe features.
I installed the propriety ATI drivers to try the desktop effects and have sticked with Intrepid due to that those drivers(rv500) isn't supported any more. About a month ago I upgraded to Karmic and the open drivers works a lot better then the closed ones, everything is snappier and runs better!
Well that's my story and became longer then I intended, I really wished to say thank you to all the Kubuntu and KDE developers and last but not least the people at this forum making the transition smooth!
Oh and that HD failure? .. I still run the same disk without any problem at all, make me think theres something with ext3/4 outperform NTFS
PS; Last week I installed Lucid Lynx Alpha and I'm really amazed how well it runs 8)
PS2; The only thing I regret so far is that I've only been able to persuade 1 friend to try Linux, and he chose Ubuntu
Best regards and keep up the good work!
Jonas
Better late then never for a testimony
I have now, give or take a few weeks, been using Kubuntu for a year, and as the signature say - I'm now completely windoze free! I can't say I know Linux much at all, I'm not a coder nor do I work with computers(I do however assembly my own hardware and know the basics about command line, was using DOS on my fathers computer back in early 90's, can't say I remember much about it though).
During this year Kubuntu have done more or less everything I need to be doing on Kubuntu. As a windows transitioner it's not always a walk in park but as I have learned it's more due to differences between OS' then lack of software resources.
My first experience with Linux was however in around 2002 when I tried Mandrake with KDE (1.x ?, must have been KDE2 around 2002 according to distrowatch, but as I remember from what I remember it looked like, it looks more like KDE 1.x then 2.x ) I can't say I gave it much effort since my only intention was "to give that Linux thing", a try, I probably had seen this movie or maybe this one. From what I remember it I removed Mandrake since I couldn't get the network to function. I remember I printed out a 400 pages manual and burned 3-4 CDs with extra packages.
At about this time (or before)I started to use firefox, from what I remember it was a beta 0.97 and became intrigued with the whole FOSS philosophy and the user potential it gives. When people complain about that "Linux" doesn't do 'this and that' I always think that the same arguments was used when people complained about Firefox around ~2002,(much of it was rants because it didn't work the way they were used to, i.e IE
) ~3% user base then, today 25% or more use Firefox.So 1½ year ago I had some major issues with my computer (running WinXP) and it crashed all the time, I think I installed Windows 15-20 times(repairing/check disks excluded) during a 6 month period, troubleshooting time was more then actual running time, I think I narrowed it down to HD failure(still not sure though)
Then I finally gave up and thought enough is enough, found the wubi-installer and gave it a go, still had the same trouble with the XP more or less ruining it, but finally got Ubuntu running with a LiveCD. I had so much trouble to adopt to the 'new ways' and looking at ubuntu-forums felt like a jungle (and still does in a way), simple things like settings in Gnome felt like a steep hill to climb.
So fed up with both Windoze and "Linux" I just wanted the most basic apps to run in a way I could comprehend(or at least change them to the way I wanted), I took the Kubuntu iso and gave it a spin, and simply found what I was looking for, 'the new way', became my way.
I plunged straight into Intrepid and the 'bug-pool' KDE 4.1(many seemed to hate it compared to 3.5) I just loved it, it worked the way I wanted, it felt stable and with every update it was more stable and mroe features.
I installed the propriety ATI drivers to try the desktop effects and have sticked with Intrepid due to that those drivers(rv500) isn't supported any more. About a month ago I upgraded to Karmic and the open drivers works a lot better then the closed ones, everything is snappier and runs better!
Well that's my story and became longer then I intended, I really wished to say thank you to all the Kubuntu and KDE developers and last but not least the people at this forum making the transition smooth!
Oh and that HD failure? .. I still run the same disk without any problem at all, make me think theres something with ext3/4 outperform NTFS
PS; Last week I installed Lucid Lynx Alpha and I'm really amazed how well it runs 8)
PS2; The only thing I regret so far is that I've only been able to persuade 1 friend to try Linux, and he chose Ubuntu
Best regards and keep up the good work!
Jonas
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