I recently found an old computer in my basement. Neglected for over 5 years and having survived flooded basements among other atrocities, I felt sorry for the little guy. So I brought the computer upstairs and fixed it up. It doesn’t have pretty specs. 1024 mb RAM, 160 gb hdd and a terrible graphics card but I felt it needed to be used.
What could I do with such a lost cause? Well, I put Ubuntu on. For those of you who do not what Ubuntu is, it is a free operating offered by Linux. At first I wasn’t too sure about leaving my Windows comfort zone, thus the reason i put Ubuntu on this throwaway computer.
After the installation, I rebooted my computer and waited patiently to see the results. When I first saw the layout of the operating system, it seemed very awkward to me. It almost looks like a reversed setup of Windows. The “start button” is in the top left corner and the other functions such as volume control, time, mail are in the top right. When you open the drop down menu, you’ll see the basic programs in Ubuntu. A word processor, firefox, file explorer, etc. The drop down menu reduces the hassle of either searching for a program or looking for it on your desktop in WIndows. Windows 7 addressed that problem by allowing you to pin the program to the task bar which is essentially the same concept as the Ubuntu drop down bar. As for the actual appearance of Ubuntu, it looks stunning. The menus all look very modern and impressive compared to Windows.
An upside to Ubuntu is the lack of malicious software made to harm your system. Since Ubuntu isn’t as widely used as Windows, hackers tend to stay away from developing viruses that prey on Ubuntu. This eliminates almost 95% of viruses out there on the web.
What stinks about Linux is its lack of programs. Games and software are nowhere near as abundant as they are in Windows. But what impressed me is the Ubuntu Software Center. You don’t need to search the Internet for the program you are looking for. All programs are searchable from the Software Center.
Obviously this isn’t a great replacement for Windows but I felt it was worthy enough to share to all you. I’m probably going to give this computer to my friend to use now that its fixed up.