Moved to another hosting provider.

Moved to here.

I want to switch to Linux. (I really do.)

It’s so close, so very, very close to replacing XP for me. The installation is awesome, the interface is [largely] polished, the experience over all is very good but there are some burrs I just get stuck on.

Complaints:

1. Random boot-poops. Occasionally the boot just doesn’t work. Some examples are when the boot will pause but then continue if I press Ctrl+Alt+Del, as if nothing happened. Other times it doesn’t continue and I have to kill the system. Frequently X decides it doesn’t want to start and presents me with a nice X doesn’t want to start this time error. Not good, not horrible as I know what to do to survive these problems but they are annoying none-the-less.
2. Audio *crack* crackles *bzzzt* when *krrrkt* I *brizt* change apps. I don’t know if it’s just because my machine is underpowered but regardless when I change between apps I don’t appreciate my earbuds stabbing me in the ears. (XP doesn’t do this on the same machine, even when running a full, standard MSSQL2k5+.NET 2.0 development stack.)
3. What is going on with my WiFi? I know that WiFi is a relatively new thing on Linux but sometimes I can configure it and sometimes I can’t. I don’t know why the options disappear to select my access point from the Network Manager, but they do. Wait, they’re back. No, false alarm. ;-)
4. Drivers. Argh. Even though my 2+ year old laptop pretty much runs like a champ on Ubuntu 7.10 and 8.04 I know that not everything is working, particularly ACPI (hot, hot, hot).
5. Everything is different. Each application seems to have it’s own metaphor. It seems to be worse in older applications but menu’s are all over the place and configurations are all different. The Gnome applications are pretty consistent though, and I can generally figure out how to work with any of them. But once I leave the Gnome-fold forget about it, just start clicking menus and eventually I’ll find what I need, or I won’t.

What I REALLY like:

1. Can the installer get any easier? I mean seriously, the concept of installing from a LiveCD is freaking GENIUS!
2. Synaptic just is great, although still a little confusing. I’m trying to learn Ruby and Ruby on Rails development, so I know I’m touching stuff that’s intended for people who know what they’re doing but it’s a pain. I do appreciate that it will pull dependencies for a selected package though.
3. Even the minimal Compiz settings look fantastic. Just enough animations to be interesting but not clutter the UI.
4. The choices. Want a new text editor, music player, game? Open up Synaptic and search for “text” or “game” and take a few minutes to soak up the selection. Just click to install, test-drive then once I’ve selected a new favorite go back to Synaptic and uncheck the ones I didn’t want. 1-2-3
5. Automatic update to the latest version. Awesome. Although it had emotions about upgrading the Network Manager that I couldn’t work through. Eventually I had to do a full install from a CD but once all the kinks are worked out it will be the best possible feature I can think of next to the installation from a LiveCD.
6. Icon set for Gnome. Love it, I have a Clearlooks theme and icons mod that I install on my XP workstations. They’re just prettier.

Even with all the great things in Ubuntu I just feel like it’s not quite there yet enough for me. Maybe if I buy a pre-installed Linux box that is pre-configured and has fully Linux-certified drivers support I’ll feel better