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I did my best to stay away from the computer over the holidays; and I managed it until just after Boxing Day. Not bad for me.

After that I couldn’t help myself. It all started with the after Christmas, Christmas present; my new Wacom Bamboo tablet and that’s where I lost all resolve. After I tried it out in Windows I wanted to play with a whole bunch more open source software and since I’ve been feeling that some of these programs seem a little buggy and slow in Windows of course now I had to install the latest version of the Ubuntu operating system nicely named Oneiric Ocelot 11.10 on Igor my PC. I didn’t give up Windows, Igor still runs with it and as a matter of fact I’m using it now.

I have the option to choose my operating system when the computer boots up. Igor will boot into Windows because it is first on the list. So I just keep an eye on the screen during boot up and choose which system to I want to use.

At ubuntu.com you can download the Wubi installer so that Ubuntu can be installed or uninstalled within Windows. No need to worry about partitioning the hard drive if Ubuntu is installed in this way. The whole process was pretty easy and I had Ubuntu up and running in no time.

Ubuntu is a really nice operating system in that it is uncluttered, fast, intuitive and for the most part easy to use. There is a wealth of free software available through the Ubuntu Software Center, an application that makes it fast and easy to find and install new software as well as showing clearly what is already installed on the system. There are familiar applications that can be installed as well including Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird and Skype to name just a few.

Getting everything up and running was no problem. I wish I could say that there were no bugs though. First I had to figure out how to get my Wacom Bamboo tablet working with Ubuntu.

The disks that made the install easy on Windows were of no use and the Ubuntu Software Center was no help there either. That meant I had to learn how to use the console and ‘sudo’ this and that. I can’t say that I was in the mood to learn about it all right there and then! But it had to be done.

It took me a couple of evenings to find the solution through a web search and figure out how to install the latest drivers. Finally two days later I got the tablet to work, tried out a new paint program and had fun with it for an hour or two. (More on that in an upcoming post.)

Now the printer isn’t working quite right with Ubuntu and the system keeps on freezing after it hibernates. The later problem, is according to the forums a bug that hasn’t yet been fixed and has to do with incompatible hardware. In the meantime I just can’t let poor Igor get any sleep while he’s running Ubuntu. The printer problem I’ll leave for another day, or maybe even longer. Likely there’s a solution and if I’m lucky if will be an easy fix.

So why go to all this trouble? More trouble than Windows? Well not really because I seem to remember taking some time to get going with Windows 7 at the beginning too.

Having a choice of operating systems is great because it gives me access to so many more applications. I like Windows 7 and I like Ubuntu 11.10 too. Ubuntu is fast and secure and elegant, and because it’s open source it feels like it’s all mine!