Yes I'll be the first to admit it, I have caught the Linux bug and a really bad (or maybe good) dose of it. I had previously dipped my toe into Ubuntu - having being harassed by my brother who swears by the OS. My initial incursions were not the very pleasant for 2 main reasons, (1) I ran it from a virtual machine on Windows Media Center, where it felt like I was working on a remote machine via VNC with very low bandwidth, (2) I wanted, nay, expected Ubuntu to be a Linux Windows and got fed up at being clueless at every turn.
Over the last few weeks I have turned to Linux as my choice of operating system for a whole variety of reasons and have been very pleased with my initial choice Linux Mint Daryna. I had installed Linux MInt at work as a dual boot with Windows but a family of gremlins waylayed me en route to deploying dual monitors, as a result LM refused to boot but,in 'Failsafe'. Not much use there.
Grudgingly I took a pals advice and installed Ubuntu 8.04. Boy am I glad I took that advice. The first thing that brought a smile to my face was the blinding speed of response to everthing, Compiz 3D cubes and all. McLaren may want to talk to the Ubuntu boys about injecting some more speed into their cars. In addition all the basic software scafolding was in place, Firefox et al. Ubuntu is an operating system on steroids - believe me when I say that if I can get all the soft ware I need for Actionscript development and graphics on Ubuntu, its bye Windows.
I'm no fan of their default graphics though, its just soooo Sahara desert. Enter another good friend of mine Andy Gallagher. There's an ole Nigerian proverb, "Know your way no be curse", believe me when I say Andy did know his way. He showed me a dozen ways to customise Ubuntu - in short he made my day. The screenshot above is the result of a few hours of adjusting Ubuntu. Transparent tool bars, weather widgets, nice subtle metallic appliation frames, just wonderful.
What can I say Ubuntu Rocks!!!