viewtopic.php?f=42&t=72518
I had just switched from Windows to Ubuntu Linux, and was, at the time, very pleased with it.
Then, Canonical (the makers of Ubuntu) started moving toward making it more "Windows-like", no doubt to make it easier for people to make the switch. Either way, even with a clear performance loss, it was still much better than Windows. Still is.
Some of the advantages:
- It is FAST.
- It's free, and so are all of its apps.
- It never crashes, ever.
- You can have up to 12 virtual desktops in one machine, with no apparent speed loss. In Windows you have only 1.
- There's NO MALWARE for Linux.
- You can run Windows (or any other OS) and its apps on Virtualbox (https://www.virtualbox.org/), and, in many cases, they run faster and better than in their native OS's
- There are apps for pretty much everything, and some are even better than their Windows counterparts.
- You can install a program called "Conky", that lets you put on screen, permanently, any information you may want, and keep it updated automatically.
I tried the thing, and...
The main differences with Ubuntu:
- Ubuntu is fast and stable. Crunchbang's speed is obscene! And, to boot, its stable as a rock.
- In Ubuntu you can have up to 12 virtual desktops. In Crunchbang you can have up to 99.
- It can be customized even further than Ubuntu. You can literally make it your own, even in the slightest details.
- If I had to choose a forum to share with this one the title of "nicest forum on the Internet", if would certainly be the Crunchbang forum (http://crunchbang.org/forums/)
Now, the members of the Crunchbang community are working on a successor. Then, I found Viperr6 (http://viperr.org/indexen.html), and been using it for a few months. Pretty much like Crunchbang. Love it.
And now, I'm starting to experiment with Semplice (http://semplice-linux.org/), and, I have to say, it's even better.
So, my point is:
If you are still using Windows, try Ubuntu. You will be introduced to a much wider world than you can even imagine. You can even try it inside Windows, if you're not sure, or you can dual boot, if you need windows for work, for example.
Or, if you have an older computer you no longer use, try it on that one. Believe me, there's no better feeling in the world than smoking your best friend's top-of-the-line computer with an old single core laptop with a gig of RAM.
Or if you are a little more confident with computers, there are plenty of other beginner level Linux distributions to choose from.
If you're already using Ubuntu, look around. There are more than 600 other distributions, that will offer you even more functionality than Ubuntu does.
Here are some of my old screenshots, to give you an idea... (click on thumbnails for full size)
Sorry, I don't seem to have any Ubuntu screenshots.
Here's Crunchbang:
6 virtual desktops (you can see them on top), and 6 conkys (birthdays on the left, clock and calendar (center), System (right), Buenos Aires weather (bottom left) and Miami weather (bottom right).
This one is just about the same, but has an added conky that shows exchange US Dollar rates (bottom left), and the weather conkys have an 8 day forecast each.
Here's my initial Viperr6 with 12 desktops and 6 interactive conkys...
... and finally, also Viperr6, this time with the 12 desktops, 6 interactive, and one added non-interactive conky (the battery), as it stands now.
Hope you guys like it.
