Boy, after my vista experience, can I get it loaded on my dell too.

P.S. to monkey boy at Microsoft; what are you guys thinking?

mm, what was your experience with vista?

mm,

Just how bad was your vista experience? This is why I am not anxious to upgrade to Vista quite just yet. I don't want to have to deal with all of the problems. Sure, you can load Linux on your PC. It's completely free. You can even get your desktop to look like it's running Windows if you don't feel comfortable with the new OS. The possibilities with Linux are endless.

Ha! Can't wait to hear about your Linux experiences. I dual boot XP and Vista, though I find I barely use Vista, cuz it has a whole heapin' bowl of problems. XP has its own too, which is why I sometimes switch between the two. Two operating systems from the same company, just to get things done. How's that for efficiency?

If you survive the Linux switch, maybe I'll give it a go.

I got one of the XPS 410 boxes with Linux on it and I love it. Works well, contains software and tools I need. I love the Beryl 3D desktop! In trying to do more complex graphics like multiple desktop with Beryl, I had to make some adjustments that I found quite easily with an Internet search.

I have had Vista ultimate running on my geek box for about a month or so. Sure there are lots of issues. Like it not recognizing my Ipod. But, being a gamer, I find that Windows is the only real alternative. Both MAC and Linux systems still cannot run the games that Windows can. I know this is because game developers are married to the Windows development bride. But, as an IT pro, I know I'm going to have to deal with Vista in the workplace not that far off in the future. So, I might as well deal with the issues at home now and be better prepared later. If all you do is email and word processing then Linux can be a very good alternative. But to do serious 3D graphics and gaming....give me a Windows box anyday. The new IMac's graphics card? Please, my HP laptop has a more powerful card. And no upgrade option either......nice. And...my XP Pro box works and runs great. Haven't had any problems since XP was still a baby. And yes, its a rig built with gaming in mind, but is not up to the task these days.

To Microsoft/Vista haters/trolls:

Yeah Vista pretty much sucked out of the shoot because third-party support was atrocious. NVidia drivers? Trash. Soundblaster drivers? Double Trash. OK, maybe Microsoft was to blame for that too. It's certainly possible. I have been running Vista (32bit) since it came out and can say that it finally is pretty darn stable.

I'm a gamer, so Linux and MAC are out of the question for me. I also run lots of peripherals; namely a photo scanner, a sheet-fed scanner, a logitech wireless mouse, a microsoft wireless keyboard an external USB HDD, and a Palm Treo. I am happy to report that, with the exception of the Palm Treo (dismal effort by Palm-goodbye Treo) everything works well...finally.

Why? New WHQL certified drivers. That's it. End of story.

Ubuntu seems nifty though. Maybe I can load it on one of my old machines and make it a file server.

I am typing this on my newly converted Toshiba notebook. Last night I made the leap from Windows XP to Ubuntu. My biggest headache was getting my wireless card working (or rather, finding the right information to make it happen). After searching one of the Ubuntu forums I was wireless in about five minutes and my connection speed is almost 40% faster!

I chose Ubuntu over other Linux distributions for the same reason so many people have Windows on their machines now: Because it's the most popular (distrowatch.com) and there seems to be quite a bit of support for it (relatively speaking).

About 80% of my time computing is spent online, so my main concern was getting FireFox connected. Right now I'm okay with running Linux exclusively. I do a lot of peer-to-peer stuff, and with Windows I had a lot of security/performance issues. It seemed like I was reformatting my hard drive every six months. Finally I just got tired of it.

There are a couple of things I miss Windows for, namely I can't use my Netflix account to download movies for instant viewing (only works with Internet Explorer). I haven't gotten some of my notebook's hot keys to work yet. But other than that I'm pretty damn happy to be free of the 800 lb gorilla known as Windows. My hard drive is fairly tiny by today's standards (40 gigs) so I doubt I will be setting up a dual boot. If I had the space now I probably would though.

For anybody curious about Linux, I encourage you to at least try running it from a live cd (no installation required). That's what I did and it gave me enough confidence to make the switch.

Blackscribe, sounds like the switch from Windows to Ubuntu went smoothly! I'm glad to hear that all of the commenters here are all for Linux (but I guess who wouldn't be). I'm just curious to find out if I'll even miss using Windows once we get our new PC up and running.

You may find that some beloved software won't work anymore like, say, Quicken. Sure, it runs okay using Crossover Office (or Wine, if you're interested in not spending money), but some things no longer work properly. However, that's a pretty small caveat to offer.

I've been slowly converting people to Linux the last couple of years. My wife isn't there yet, but she's been happily using Open Office for a while now and is completely satisfied at how it works. I was just happy to not spend more money.

One final thought on Wine: there are tons of people trying to get popular Windows programs to run on Linux. You should browse through the forums at Winehq.com to see if someone has worked out the kinks for one of your favorite pieces of software. Not surprisingly, lots of games are on the list.

I love Linux. It's so much better than Windows. I however don't really like Dell hardware. There are a lot of compatibility issues with other cases and such, however for that price you really can't beat it.

To Jen the Weird Hunter: Have fun with it! I'm a recent convert to Linux (Ubuntu), and it has been fun. I highly recommend you install the Compiz/Fusion packages from the respository, add Emerald (add: it's not as easy to install as it should be), and enjoy the eye candy :) Makes Vista seem antique :)

To everyone else: If you haven't tried Linux yet, Ubuntu Linux is really nice. I dual-boot Ubuntu/XP, and I rarely use XP anymore.

Does anyone note the incongruity of picking Linux over Windows (even Vista) because "here are still many apps and hardware that aren't compatible with Vista" I like my openSUSE setup, but Windows still has better application selection and hardware compatibility.

To keep some balance:

I purchased my Gateway notebook in December. I upgraded the BIOS, installed Vista Home, and applied the Vista-compatible drivers from Gateway. No issues whatsoever. Runs perfectly.

We just received three of Dell's Inspiron 530N with
Ubuntu pre-installed. First time using Ubuntu, so
getting used to sudo everything took a tad getting
used to...but things seemed to work out immediately
out of the box...

except...

1. Invoking Beryl causes the entire screen to go white.
Need to do some more research on drivers, Beryl settings
and this "white screen of death" phenmonen.
2. tftpd-hpa just does not want to start via xinetd.
Currently manually doing it.

#2 is most probably my fault in not setting the
tftpd-hpa to DAEMON mode or something (although I think
I'm doing it corrrectly)

If you have any experience or luck with #1, I look forward
to your blog.

We bought the low-low end vanilla flavor SKU with
the nVidia 8300GS

try updating your driver:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedDrivers/NVIDIAOfficial?highlight=%28nvidia%29