Back to Ubuntu. Well, okay, not completely. I still have a heavy dependency on Office and Photoshop. Not to mention, my Zune and Blackberry won't sync with Ubuntu...
A couple of days ago, I realized my hard drive was down to 6 GB free due to my media usage. Yeah, not cool. So I killed my backup drive and moved all my documents and media to it (since that's all that truly matters in a backup anyway). That left me with 66 GB free to do with what I want. I toyed with the idea of installing Leopard again, but I can't remember the settings I used to get it to run like I did, I don't have a Time Machine backup anymore, and most importantly, it threatened to make my lappy spontaneously combust at a moments notice. Having not tried Ubuntu beyond the Live CD since it hit 8.04, I decided to give it a 20 GB slice. With all my documents and media on an external hard drive, I have full access to it within Linux too.
I just wish that Microsoft would get off it's high horse and support Linux, or at least the major distros (such as Ubuntu) with it's software. I know there are Office alternatives, such as OpenOffice.org, but none have the full functionality or ease of use that I get with Microsoft Office. Compatibility with Office-created documents is pretty good, but not all there. The same goes with Photoshop. Yeah, there's Gimp, and it's good, but it's no Photoshop. Without getting into the intracacies of building software to be compatible with a totally different code-base, I do understand why Microsoft and Adobe don't support such a minor percentage of the OS population. But it would be really nice to kick Windows to the curb permanantly. Yes, I could do that with Leopard, but considering the actual, physical risk it poses to my laptop, it's not really worth it. Now, when someone get's it running with no heat issues and all the hardware working, I'll be there in a heartbeat.
And we haven't even talked about the Zune (which is Windows only) or my BlackBerry (which will sync with either Vista or Leopard). Apparently Linux folk don't touch the Zune. I've only found a few references to people asking questions on forums in regards to that. There's Barry for the BlackBerry, but it's command-line only right now, and I haven't actually gotten it to work. Not to mention, MobileMe only syncs with Outlook (or Mail, Address Book, and iCal in Leopard), so I lose my cloud-sync without those avenues. Again, I wish Apple would expand support, but I seriously doubt they'd do that. The only 2 big programs they've done for outside of OS X are iTunes and Safari. Neither of those have a Linux package.
All that being said, I know I seem like a habitual OS switcher. And no, I don't like Ubuntu just because it's an alternative to Windows. As much as I sometimes complain about Windows and my preference to alternatives such as Leopard and Ubuntu, I don't really hold that much beef with it. It's a good, stable operating system (yes, even Vista). Is it bloated? Yeah. Does it run slower than I think it should (especially considering how fast Ubuntu and Leopard run on the same hardware)? Oh yeah!
But it does everything I need it to do. It has Office and Photoshop, so I can't cut the chain that binds me to it. Leopard gets me away from it, but binds the laptop to a desk with fans. Ubuntu is fast, streamlined, and super-customizable, but lacks the few programs that I really need. So until the alternatives get better, or I get more used to them, I dual-boot. But Ubuntu is my primary system, while Windows is there for my Zune, Blackberry, and a few programs. In fact, I'll be logging into Vista in a few to clean out some programs that I won't use anymore...
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