Linux for desktop

I admit since my graduation from undergrad I always had an affinity for Linux and had even built a couple of dual boot systems with SUSE Linux a while ago (read 5 years) and thanks to the unstable SATA ports on my PC and combined with the fact that the power user (Sandhya) graduated with her masters, I lost the interest in maintaining the same. At that time my primary complaints were, I can’t play MP3’s there is no Picasa or the like of and the drivers for wifi and display were all a pain.

Fast forward to 2013, my beloved desktop with its bad SATA ports gave up on me and no amount of repairs by Mr. Windows 7 was fixing the same. Dr. Google was also very little help. I had to retrieve my data from the hard disk so began the experiments with Linux, my first try was the Knoppix live cd that I had for a long time but the problem with that was it does not recognize the external hard drive and can only work with USB sticks less than  than 2GB (Imagine transferring few 100’s of GB of data this way). To get around this I found another Linux distro called Puppy Linux, a really really small Linux (~100MB) install and live boot. Thanks to it I managed to retrieve my data and back it up.

During this process the thought occurred why not try Linux on the desktop. Instead of going with my traditional favorites SUSE or FEDORA both of which had GB of install files I went with Ubuntu. The latest version 12.04 did not fit on a CD (>700MB) so had to start with 10.04 and upgrade eventually (in a  day) to 12.10.

Here are the cool things about Ubuntu

• The installation was a breeze, much much faster than Windows 7
• The upgrades were a breeze too (up to 12.10)
• It managed to find all the graphics and sound card drivers 
• It recognized my wifi and connected to the same, with windows I had to download the software for the wireless card
• It can play YouTube videos and after installing Google Chrome and Chromecast extension it recognized the Chromecast at home
• It even recognized my wireless printer and I managed to print a test page
• After installing VLC media player, I managed to play the MP3’s
• After installing something called Wine and its utilities I was able to install Picasa too. I admit it’s not working completely as I can’t upload files into the Google account from Picasa but I can see my pics organized in the familiar feel I am used to
• There was some trouble with wifi dropping off every few minutes but uninstalling the default network manager and installing a new one solved the same.

In short I am loving my Ubuntu desktop at home and its working like a charm. I know I am in the honeymoon phase and sooner or later will need some sort of reliable windows desktop at home but till then Ubuntu desktop is a thing of beauty.