Over the past few weeks, I’ve found that the saying “it just works” is about as useful as saying that airplanes “just fly.” It’s an easy thing to say until you have to learn to pilot one. Foreign languages also “just work.” But have you ever tried to learn one?

Linux is like that.

That’s not a knock against Linux, though. Learning anything new is difficult. I’m sure people have similar issues when switching from Windows to a Mac (or vice versa—yes, that happens, too). Each little act of re-learning how to do things even as simple as taking a screen shot or changing your desktop background creates some friction. It’s just something you should keep in mind whenever you hear someone saying that switching is easy (or if you are trying to convince someone of that).

Yes, switching to a new way of doing familiar tasks is difficult. But, like learning a new language, there’s a reward for your toil.

On January 30th I decided to try Ubuntu Linux as my primary desktop. Linux comes in a variety of “flavors” called distributions, each with slightly different features but all based on the free Linux operating system. Ubuntu is the current darling of the desktop Linux world. Why Ubuntu? Well, I’d tried various live CDs in the past (Knoppix, Mandrake, Ubuntu) and I just liked Ubuntu the best. Also, I built a machine for our children two years ago that was originally running Mandrake but I never liked it and eventually upgraded them to Ubuntu and it’s worked like a charm.

Or did you mean why in general?

As I’m sure you’ve heard, Microsoft recently launched their latest operating system, Windows Vista, to much fanfare and derision and hoopla. Like all major system upgrades, there are a lot of people who like it and a lot who hate it. (And of course the other 99% of the world who just don’t care either way and who will just get whatever happens to come with the next computer they purchase, but I digress.)

I actually have a modern system that can run Vista Ultimate (a dual-core with 2 Gb of RAM). But frankly, $100 for an upgrade to a crippled operating system (Vista Basic) is way too much and $350 for Ultimate is just ridiculous. That’s 1/3 the cost of my entire computer! I’m also strongly against DRM. I like to think that I own my computer and media. I don’t want anyone telling me where or when or how I can watch a movie I purchased or listen to my music. The whole debacle from the pricing and licensing to the DRM to Microsoft’s thinly veiled stance that all of their customers are potential software thieves—it’s just too much.

So, what better time to try out Ubuntu Linux and find out if it is a viable alternative to Windows on the desktop.

This isn’t the first time I’ve tried Linux. I’ve popped in a number of live CDs over the years and I even installed one a couple of years ago (and then quickly uninstalled it). My kids (four and six) are full-time Linux users. Their computer has been running some flavor of Linux since it was born (currently Ubuntu). They use it for edutainment-style gaming and watching the occasional video.

Linux has come a long way in the past few years. Contrary to popular opinion, Linux isn’t just for geeks anymore. Installing Ubuntu Linux is better than the installation of Windows XP. As soon as the installation is complete you can do a number of very useful things such as access the internet, edit photos, write documents, send email, use instant messenger—all in an attractive, customizable graphical environment with menus and windows and mouse clicks.

But is it really possible to use Ubuntu Linux on the desktop today?

Of course, the answer is: “It depends.”

This is part one of what will probably be a three—maybe four—part series. Next time, I’ll write about my out-of-box experience with Ubuntu Linux, switching over to Linux versions of my favorite apps and finding alternatives, setting up my hardware and desktop environment, and the problems and wonderful little surprises I discovered on the way.

[ Continue to Part 2: Down the Rabbit Hole ]