Looking for a new Linux

For the record, I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Mac person, but for some perverse reason, I've had a continuing fascination with the GNU/Linux operating systems for the past few years. I've long been a fan of free and open source software (FOSS). I've used Mozilla and later Firefox as my browser of choice, and although I use M$ Office in my work out of necessity, my preferred productivity suite for the past decade has been OpenOffice.org, although lately I've switched my allegiance to its progeny, LibreOffice.

I first encountered Linux up close and personal early in 2009 when I helped a buddy of mine install Ubuntu Linux on another friend's laptop. His WindowsXP installation had a terminal case of "Windows Rot" and he had lost the installation and recovery discs, so the only alternative was a "nuclear" option of reformatting the hard drive and installing Linux. Once we got it up and running, I was sufficiently impressed to obtain a cheap used laptop on eBay, install Linux on it, and write an article about the experience for PCSolutions magazine.

I installed OpenSUSE Linux on that laptop because it had relatively modest graphics requirements and although I'm not a Windows fan, the modified GNOME interface, which mimicked WindowsXP in many respects, made the transition to Linux fairly intuitive. Most amazingly, the computer ran much faster on Linux than it did on Windows.

I made good use of that computer for about three years, periodically updating the OS as new versions of OpenSUSE came out. Each new version ran a little better on that machine, except for the one time I decided to try the KDE interface. It finally died in a horrible hard drive crash a few weeks ago, and because the hardware was so outdated, I just couldn't justify replacing the drive. Instead, I went back to eBay to see what might be available in a used laptop on which to further my Linux experimentations.

The replacement was an HP nc6000 laptop. Although it's five years old, it was a high-end piece of hardware when it was new, so it has aged relatively gracefully. I got the thing for a paltry sum, partially because it was loaded with Fedora Linux instead of WindowsXP. That suited me just fine, except the computer is running version 14 of Fedora, for which support will end in a few weeks when the final release version of Fedora 16 comes out.

For that reason, I've been shopping for a new Linux distribution to replace Fedora 14. My front runners are Fedora 16 (now in beta release), OpenSUSE 12.1 (now in beta release), and Ubuntu 10.10 (now in full release). All three of these releases will take some getting used to as they all sport revised user interfaces. Fedora and OpenSUSE will have GNOME 3.2 and Ubuntu will have Ubuntu's proprietary Unity interface.

I recently downloaded a live CD of Fedora 15, which also uses GNOME 3.x, and I was less than impressed. I can't put my finger on it exactly, but much of the way it worked seemed counter intuitive. For this reason, I'm shying away from Fedora 16, although I am willing to load up a live CD and take it around the block. One mark against Fedora is it contains no proprietary software like Adobe Flash Player or even codecs for playing mp3 files or DVDs. It's taken me a while to get that stuff working under Fedora 14 and I still can't play a DVD.

I have not yet run OpenSUSE 12 from a live CD and will probably wait at least until it comes out in a release candidate version. I have read that its interface is virtually identical to that of Fedora 16. The big difference, in my experience, is OpenSUSE makes it a bit easier to install proprietary software when needed.

Although I've spent a lot of time with the 11.x releases of OpenSUSE, I'm somewhat inclined to let this one go because I have had difficulty getting wireless networking up and running on other machines I've loaded OpenSUSE onto. By contrast, wireless networking on Fedora and Ubuntu have been up and running from the proverbial git-go. All I've had to do is enter my WEP key and I'm off to the races, even running from a live CD.

Right now, Ubuntu 10.10 is my favorite of the three. Although its Unity interface has GNOME 3 underpinnings, it is much more refined and somehow more intuitive despite the fact that it's quite different from more conventional Windows and Mac OS  X interfaces. The other big selling point for me is that everything works from the first start-up and the aforementioned proprietary pieces can be downloaded and installed when you're installing the operating system, provided you have a working Internet connection. That's all good stuff in my book.

The only reservation I have about Ubuntu is it seems to run a little sluggishly at times. I'm sure this will improve when I'm running it from the internal hard drive, but it does give me pause. Fedora 14 is lightning quick by comparison.

Another option that I have not yet explored is to install Fedora 16 with the xfce interface. It's more basic, more Windows like, but it should run well since it's designed to take up minimal system resources. I read not too long ago that Linus Torvalds, who invented Linux, has switched over to xfce from GNOME as his interface of choice since the introduction of GNOME 3.x.

When it comes to choices for this little Linux box, it seems I've got an embarrassment of riches. When I make a final decision, I'll let you know.