From the page “ A homemade speaker using a plastic cup, business card, wire, magnet and some Lego blocks. “

With the release of Windows Vista and all the reports I read of activation problems, stealth updates, compatibility issues, astronomical system requirements and just the heavy handed “big brother” feeling, I once more turned to Linux. Before you ask the answer is no, I do not know if they are all true but I know Linux is a hell of a lot cheaper than any version of Windows and there isn’t an argument in the world that will turn me back now so save it.

It was at this time I discovered Ubuntu and have decided this is the gateway drug of all Linux distros. I am hooked so bad that after using this only since Feisty Fawn, not only have I completely removed the windows partition from my laptop, I have been seriously looking at Slackware which from what I hear has the hardest learning curve of all the Linux flavors.

It started with a live CD of Feisty Fawn. This allowed me to try it before I fly it. Just like a crack dealer you know? Give em a taste and they will want more and I just couldn’t get enough. It was a little slow using the live CD but after poking around I realized that was just because nothing was written to the drive. I had to see how this would perform when it was actually installed so I spent a good two weeks clearing out unneeded Windows garbage files, backing up my files and then deleting those from the partition, removing programs I thought I could live without and defragmenting the hard drive.

Wow, after all that I managed to get my Windows partition down to 7.9Gb. This plus the couple Gig restore partition that was preinstalled on my laptop meant I had almost 70Gb left.

I hit the install option after loading the live CD and with a nervousness of a teen driving for the first time, began the install of Feisty Fawn. I am no techno-tard but damn! This was too easy! This thing saw my windows partition and gave me the option to setup another just for Linux. After a short time answering some questions and formatting the new partition I had a working installation of Ubuntu.

I only had two issues to deal with. Apparently ATI and Broadcom were the brands of my video card and my wireless adapter so I was at their mercy as far as finding working drivers. Or so I thought. With the help of Ubuntu Forums and Ubuntu Wiki I was able to find relatively easy fixes in a reasonable amount of time. Thank god! 800 x 600 on a widescreen laptop just wasn’t right and what good is built in wireless if it didn’t work? This was sweet! I could get to my files on my windows partition and bring them over to my Ubuntu partition, surf the web using my wireless and had gotten my resolution aspect back to a normal ratio now. Time to explore, learn and see what this thing could do.

Next post, my Upgrade from Ubuntu Feisty Fawn to Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon.