Well I’ve been using Linux for a bit longer now so here are the developments;
I was wrong on account of the USB memory stick working. It worked the once but has not worked again. Since it works in neither Windows nor Linux it’s probably a more serious problem.
As it happens the switch to Linux has been far less painless than the switch to 64 bit computing. I did get the flash plugin working under 64 bit but not the java plugin. Several applications would not work under 64 bit. So I decided to attempt a reinstall of 32 bit Ubuntu despite my initial problems. As it turned out my initial problems installing the 32 bit version were due to using a cheap blank DVD to burn onto. This time my burn was fully verified. And what do you know, it worked!
I’ve learnt how to install some things without the easy internet based manager and some basics about command lines. Even managed to compile, install and run from a source file (ie raw code).
I really haven’t used Windows much since. Linux has also proven faster and more stable. I have also found DVD burning far better in Linux. I do occasionally play games on Windows is about all. One guy on a mailing list referred to his Windows partition as Wintendo. Quick someone register it and make some money. There are Linux games and ways to run Windows based games on Linux but the fact is Windows games are better simply because more developers are making them for Windows (and consoles) using proprietary systems like DirectX. Apart from games it’s hard to justify use of Windows.
Linux now has the rather nice flexibility of being able to deal with completely fresh users to the power geeks that it was originally so popular with. Community support is generally better too which is where most of us turn to when we have problems.
