Ubuntu: My impressions after a trial period

My primary home computer operating system is Mac OS X (Currently Tiger 10.4). I’ve also used almost every version of Microsoft Windows in a work environment since the day Windows was introduced. This last October I installed the latest version of Ubuntu on a home PC so I could spend some time with it and compare it to OS X and Windows. You can read about that install process here.

I’ve now spent a couple of months living with Ubuntu on a part-time basis. It’s been enough time to form some personal impressions about how Ubuntu compares to the other operating systems mentioned.

Overall I was impressed with Ubuntu. I had tried Linux once before with a much older version of Red Hat. That experiment didn’t last long and it’s taken me an extended amount of time to become interested enough to try it again.

My conclusions about Ubuntu were reached by asking myself the following questions:

Question: Is Ubuntu good enough to serve as my primary or only home computer OS?
Answer:  Yes, I found Ubuntu to have all the main functions I require.

Question:  If used as my primary OS, could I find similar or alternate applications to what I use now?
Answer:¬† Yes for the main ones.¬† I’m not sure about some of the smaller specialized ones (would need more investigation)

Question:  If there was a choice between Ubuntu and Windows which one would I choose and what would be the plus and con of Ubuntu?
Answer:¬† ¬† Ubuntu – Ubuntu Plus: Security (less spyware, viruses, worms, etc.), Cost¬† Ubuntu Con:¬† Less “Standard” Applications, Clunky GUI

Question:  If there was a choice between Ubuntu and Mac OS X which one would I choose and what would be the plus and con of Ubuntu?
Answer:¬† ¬† Mac OS X – Ubuntu Plus: Cost¬† Ubuntu Con:¬† Not as good of GUI, Less “Standard” Applications

Whenever I used Ubuntu I felt that the GUI was an attempt to emulate in functionality the Windows User environment.¬† I’ve not experienced Vista so I could only compare it to Windows XP. In some areas Ubuntu was superior to the Windows GUI but over-all I would have to say it still lags behind Windows from a normal users viewpoint.¬† I didn’t try an alternate Linux GUI’s as I felt it would be a fairer comparison if I used what was loaded as default.¬† The reduced cost and better security however more then made up for this when compared to Windows.¬† It would be some additional work finding and using alternative applications that could maintain Windows compatibility but I would still prefer Ubuntu.

Since I consider the Mac OS X user interface to be superior to the Windows GUI, switching to Ubuntu left me feeling I was taking two steps back.    Also Ubuntu does not have the security advantages over OS X that it does Windows.  At this time I prefer the OS X environment.

Question:  Am I keeping Ubuntu loaded on my spare PC?
Answer:    You bet I am.

Note:¬† I’m not alone in my preference for the OS X interface over Windows…yes even Vista.¬† John Welch of InformationWeek recently did a post titled, “Review: Mac OS X Shines In Comparison With Windows Vista”

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