Xubuntu

I've been meaning to post about this for a while now. As was mentioned in the previous post, my girlfriend's 7 year old Apple TiBook died... well, I think it may just be the power adapter as it was making some iffy, sparky sounds in the proceeding weeks. This forced me to dig out our old 12 inch Samsung ultra portable (PIII 700Mhz, 192MB RAM, 20GB HDD). It was running Windows ME (eugh!) so I decided it was time to try out the streamlined, Ubuntu  derived Linux distribution Xubuntu. 

I am really impressed with it so far.  Obviously my RAM is really hindering performance (the website recommends 192MB RAM but that's probably in the same way that Apple recommends 512MBs for Leopard) but overall, it's definitely usable.

Our living room PC was running Ubuntu 7.10 briefly before it kept confusing guests (and myself a few times I have to admit) and I do really think that this is the version that has 'made it'. The one problem I had when I first tried to use Ubuntu back in the days of 6.06 was my wireless card.  My card used a Broadcom chip and back then it was a real Linux no no. 

Now with 7.10, this is no longer an issue. 

It just pops up with a helpful message informing you that Ubuntu needs to use a 'non free' driver to properly operate your wireless card and once it is clicked... bam... internet without restraints!

I doubt I'll ever ditch Apple for Linux completely but I am seriously considering purchasing a cheap Core 2 Duo Wintel laptop and using Ubuntu rather than forking out £700 on a Macbook.