Today I am proud of my self. I converted a Windows user to Linux! If this is a wall of text for you, jump to the last two paragraphs. He is a self proclaimed computer newbie or computer illiterate and had a medium league dell laptop that took 12 minutes to boot Windows Vista.

I asked him if he had anything Important on his laptop, he said, not really maybe a few files. I asked him if he could back them up and he said "You mean copy them to my external drive?" I answered positively and he did.

Now I asked if I could remove Windows from his anyway OLD AND SLOW machine completely and install an alternative to Windows that was free, I said if he didn't like it Id download Vista again and use his Windows licens thats under his laptop anyway. And he said okay.

I took his machine home with me, installed Ubuntu 10.04 and it took every device driver his computer needed, wifi, media buttons, graphics and everything worked out of the box, I installed VLC, Wine, Flash, Java runtime, Chrome, and Spotify for him (also a bunch of games he will just play once, and a few he might play on the buss and so on). Then I took it back to him, showed him where to log in to MSN and other connectivity things, showed him how to install new programs, explained that windows programs might not work and his conclusions is as follows in the next paragraph;

He absolutely loved it, it ran in full graphic mode with wobbly windows, 100% smoothly compared to his problems browsing for files in windows. It started from cold boot in 35 seconds compared to between 5 and 12 minute boot time for windows. He got all his favorite programs running natively, wine or good alternatives. And he will find out that his iPod will work out of the box! (forgot to tell him)

Anyways I also explained that Linux IS NOT WINDOWS WITH A NEW SKIN, and things are different, but asked him to just think logically and click where he thinks, and he has my number anyway if something stucks him up in a corner I encourage you to share similar stories, so people here that does not user or know about Linux might get interested in the JUST WORKS and NO VIRUSES that Linux has!

on one hand linux population is great - as more companies pay attention and port/develop/support things under linux as well.
on other hand more linux popular - more dumbs using it. so for more "user friendly" interface developers trying to make less configuration systems. and than all the point of linux is lost. i think ubuntu is nice distro. but though i don't agree with it's politics. they decide instead of user a lot of things and you do can change things back, but it would be more comfortable to set the configuration from the begging. or for example as ubuntu decided to refuse HAL and it's not you the one to decide if you want to use it or not.
P.S. I'm gentoo user and just set ubuntu on my laptop(as i don't use it that much so i decided to experiment) and sometimes i find some configurations are much easier on gentoo. now looking forward to try arch on laptop. or even to go more experementing and try Haiku(http://www.haiku-os.org/) Plan9 (http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9/) and Opensolaris (http://hub.opensolaris.org/bin/view/Main/)

@ZorG its people like you that keep other distros alive. Installing HAL in ubuntu 10.04 would be a mess i guess, but most user settings are easily changable via the terminal for power users.

Me personally im on a Mac running Snow Leopard, my home server runs linux, and i try to stay away from Windows or Xbox.

But back to your point, Yes Ubuntu is a great OS for newbies and a lot of things are automatically set up during the install. I hope Ubuntu becomes faster, more feature rich, more sleek, and easier to use. For me personally, if Ubuntu did not do it for me, i would just go for linux from scratch.

Hi.

You seems to me like a guy I am looking for
I'm Windows user stick to this platform because of tools I have to use.

Look at this subject and please would you like to convert me as well?
This is what I want today more than n900 2 months ago

In addition to my gaming rig I have a crappy 2-3 years old laptop running vista. The laptop is slow, unstable and runs hot as hell. Would the change of OS remarkably speed things up and make the use more enjoyable?
Thanks! ~Tuukka

Hey devu, as far as I can tell, you are just a Windows user that is curious about linux, half ways because you would like to develop for it. (TBH ive been awake for two days now, and I was getting ready to sleep 8 hours ago, but to much to do :P ) Also you need more general Linux knowledge.

A fine place to start for any Windows or Mac User is Ubuntu Linux! Okay you have some alternatives, but I suggest that you get a hold of Ubuntu and try it a while and not remove windows before you(if you ever) find that you dont need to use Windows at all.

These are the 3 ways of getting Ubuntu I am suggesting to you:

1. Easiest way is to use Wubi to install Ubuntu on a virtual filesystem on your windows disk and it configurs your boot manager to be able to select between ubuntu or windows when you start. Installing Ubuntu with Wubi is just as simple task as installing any program in windows.

2. Take an old laptop, not too old because you would like to run the newest ubuntu smoothly. This is of course just like a rule of thumb, but I think most about 3 to 4 year old laptops or newer should run ubuntu like a charm, and make it to a fully fledged ubuntu only machine. Ubuntu is great with laptops, and great with power management (almost as great as OS X, and much greater than Windows). You would need to burn an Ubuntu ISO file and boot in on your laptop to install it like this. (Its a very straight forward install) Or make a USB pen a bootable Ubuntu Installer!(program for windows) (also you need to download the ubuntu ISO file and select it in this tool)

3. Download the Ubuntu ISO file and brun it, partition and install ubuntu on its own partition. This would have practically the same result as solution one, but is a "cleaner" harder way to do it, but you get a bit more performance out of your ubuntu. This should be a piece of cake if your a power user! Just boot from ISO or USB and follow the intuitive installer, pay extra attention to the partitioning section

Yes, Change of OS would remarkably speed things up and make the use more enjoyable!

I suggest (since you have a gaming rig) just downloading ubuntu from ubuntu.com, boot from the burned disc (ask if you have problems with that) and install it on your vista laptop and completely uninstall Vista. When Ubuntu asks how you would like to partition your harddrive, select erase the entire drive and install ubuntu or something like that.

The negative thing is that you might not have your Vista DVD to go back if you choose to do so. But in my country it is legal to obtain the Vista install disc from pirate site sources and use your own payed for licens key (sticker under your laptop). Just choose to get the right language, and right processor version 64bit or 32bit, and right version (home premium or other) and you can use your own burned DVD.

In fact, when i worked at a PC repair shop, we were allowed to make appropriate burned windows disc's to OEM customers. (bought a computer with us and had no other way to recover, but they still had their license)

The "point" of linux is not to be complex and command line driven - it just happens to be. And this is as much a problem for take-up as it is a benefit for power users.

Learning how linux works should not be the primary reason for using it - the primary reason should be to escape the tyranny of Windows and closed-source and endless re-inventing the wheel.

If you learn about about how things work in the process - fine if that interests you. But for the vast majority of the population, a computer just needs to be a tool that makes life simpler, not for it to be a project in of itself.

That ubuntu and other distros are doing their level best to make linux usable for the non-technical has to be applauded and encouraged.

first of all it's ZogG, second of all. i liked hal very much (moving to udev, as i moved to new xorg). but the point is not about mess or not. the point is that distro giving you configuration he decides what is the best for you. and if you are noobie - you are getting used for it as it given and it becomes the standart (yes everything is the matter of what you are used too, as only moved too linux i tried to find programs that look like ones i used in windows(winamp, bsplayer), but now i think that xmms2/mpd, mplayer(without gui) are much easier to use. most of people that are searching for usefriednly OS like ubuntu would probably stick to default programs. even the firefox has it's default homepage with search. and so this politic are very simuliar with apple ( i don't like their politics too) . and yes sometimes it's messy to change for example from gnome to kde (as most of ubuntu software are gtk and some of them are deeply builtin OS) and yes you can say that there is kubuntu - but why would you use different os if only the difference is DE/WM. I'm just saying the point of the linux was not only opensource and free software but also modulation ( that things work together but not depend on each other and if something goes wrong it wouldn't stuck all the system) also the choice - you don't like something - change it to something else or even make your own way. you actually understand what's going on your computer and it works how you want it to. and if not - i don't see any difference with windows - except it's free and opensource.

@ZogG Get of your High horse and think about what your saying. I'm sorry for misspelling your name, but for nothing more. Most people CHOSE as you chose to use mplayer without gui, they CHOSE something they are able to use without reading 3 books on the subject. Ubuntu is made as a CHOICE like you are taking, and ubuntu is a choice to windows. You want even more choices, thats fine because ubuntu's philosophy and politics is not to MAKE YOU use Ubuntu, but to be a CHOICE to OS X and Windows, Canonical does not care if you use their Ubuntu or not, but their happy if they make the people happy, (they have a lot of money, and their not getting it from the end user and the users who sits and votes in the brainstorming section.

Ubuntu is for everyone, from the power user to the complete Newbie! but if its not for you, then we all hope you find a suitable alternative for your self, and that you stop being negative about ubuntu