I have an old Acer laptop, circa 2006. It’s a decent machine, 1.7 GHz Centrino Duo, 2 GB RAM, 15” screen. It came with Windows Vista Premium that we have been using since day one (don’t shoot me). I know there are a ton of complaints about Vista, but for the basic things we use this laptop for it has done a decent job with minimum trouble. However, there were a number of things about it that made me consider a switch to Ubuntu 10.10.

Switch to today, with Ubuntu 10.10. The install went smoothly, all hardware detected and running properly including built in wireless and a wireless N add-on card. After some configuration tools, conky and Avant Window Navigator, I’m really liking the performance and looks. My Acer laptop is near silent doing anything I throw at it. And the biggest testament to how far Linux has come? My wife used it for a day and didn’t even realize she was not using Windows. Granted, she stayed in Firefox the whole time, but I think it goes to show for a basic web surfing/email machine, Windows is no longer needed.

I’m building a new Sandy Bridge rig soon and I have decided to dual boot Windows and Linux. Linux for everyday use, Windows for gaming.