I’ve heard rumors that Northern is now starting to distribute Ubuntu Linux on the Thinkpads. THIS. IS. AWESOME. I’ve been using Ubuntu for almost a month now. I can easily do 95% of everything that I want/need to do. In addition, Ubuntu is never second guessing me like Vista was, it doesn’t treat me like a criminal (Microsoft’s Genuine Advantage), and all of the software is free for the community to use/edit/distribute. No more reading the fine print to see if I can legally make a backup copy, or to see if I can send this download to my friend (copyright laws).
I believe whole heartedly that open source, non-commercial, community driven software (think firefox and linux) are the future of computing.
The hardest part of switching is the initial shock of using a new operating system. I equate it to jumping into a cool swimming pool. Do you know what I mean? It stings a bit but eventually you get use to it. For you folks at NMU who have this option; TAKE IT. The future is *nix (Unix and derivatives) based computers in all kinds of different devices. The more familiarity you have with this infinitely powerful operating system, the better suited you’ll be for computers of tomorrow.