Nothing to Lose

Of course if there was nothing keeping a user using Windows, or if they just wanted to hear the chime of a different clock, Ubuntu is a useful and educational tool. A regular Ubuntu install disk has roughly the same system requirements as Windows XP, but a version of Ubuntu known as Xubuntu is available with a much lower system requirement list. Both versions are available from Ubuntu’s site.

So, what do users lose with Xubuntu? Surprisingly, they lose nothing at all. Xubuntu runs XFCE, a lightweight window-manager, which is the part of the operating system that controls … well the management of windows, how they look on the desktop. Ubuntu runs Gnome, a slightly prettier window-manager. Welcome to the world of Linux, where choice is everything. Xubuntu features all the usual applications expected of an operating system, including an internet browser and simple calculator, and a whole suite of common applications like OpenOffice and GIMP, a Photoshop style image editor.

Installing Xubuntu is about the same as installing Windows XP, and learning it is incredibly interesting, as internet forums and wikis have been set up to help new users learn the ropes of one of the most user friendly version of Linux. Happily Xubuntu doesn’t have to be installed. Many Linux distributions can be run as ‘live-CDs’, operating systems that run off the CD and do not require an installation to hard-drive. This leaves the entirety of the hard-drive to be used for files created by the user. Unfortunately it also means program and operating system settings can’t be saved and are lost on system restarts.

Users willing to go the most extreme road and get the most speed possible out of a system while sacrificing some user-friendly aspects should try DSL, or Damn Small Linux. DSL will work as a live-CD on pretty much any hardware capable of booting from a CD, and provides a basic and useful set of applications, including Firefox and various programs for editing images, documents and the usual. This road is not recommended for everyone, as it is not as well supported as Ubuntu and takes a lot more learning, leaving it an acquired taste that requires some elbow grease.

Before tossing old machines consider exploring what can be done with them. Many of the best lessons to learn about computers come as a result of reckless or silly mistakes, the kind of mistakes best left to old hardware that was destined for the bin anyway. Since Vista’s introduction learning a new operating system has become less daunting, and learning the advantages and disadvantages of different operating systems can be a great benefit when choosing how to proceed in the future.

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