After seeing every other post on Digg.com about Ubuntu I figured I better give it a try. After burning the ISO I loaded it up on a spare PC. Not only did it give me an option of trying it out just from the CD but once I started to install it gave me the option to dual boot with the Windows. I was going to reformat but figured I would try the dual booting. After asking how much hard drive space I wanted it to use, it just took off.

I only had to enter a name and password along with region of where I lived to set the time and it was ready to go. With no other work from me, I was able to get on the internet as well as browse my local network and get files off my Windows PCs. It comes with Open Office which opened up any file I needed to view, so overall I was very pleased. Within ten minutes I was on IRC and AIM, so my basic needs were covered. I just needed to see if I could game.

I tried to get Half-Life Dedicated server and RtCW:ET to run on it but I never could get it to install. I am sure there are a few simple commands to do this, but really it is hard to think of switching to an OS that I can not simply double click a program to install. The first road block I ran into is not realizing I needed to log in as root to install it in the location I wanted. I would of rather Ubuntu ask me for a root password on install rather than having to use the command line.

Overall, it is a painless and easy to use system for basic PC use. I took my system to work and Dave Derington is using it as our development environment for GameRail’s website. I also built a PC for my nephews using Ubuntu loaded up with some free games for them to use.