After numerous calls from a friend for his troubled Windows XP PC, I finally put a copy of Ubuntu on his PC and told him to give it a fair trial. As an operating system, Ubuntu has made a tremendous leap from geek only Linux to a more general Linux. As my friend uses USB Wifi stick and HP USB printer, I was a bit worried about the possible compatibility problems. To my surprise, Ubuntu picks up the Belkin USB Wifi adapter and the HP All-in-one printer straight away. I can even use XSan to scan pictures. Instead needing to battle with Windows and numerous visits to Windows Update, I have manage to get the Ubuntu system up and running in an hour. I don't know if my friend will accept the system at the end, but I am certainly impressed its much improved support to hardware.
Since my friend's family mainly use the computer for internet, I don't think they will feed much a different. However, I am a bit worried about Firefox. First, it is not that stable. It seems to be very easy to crash for sites with Flash contents. Also, CSS drop down menu still goes behind Flash videos. Anyway, hopefully my friend's family can see beyond these little glitches, and can see Ubuntu as a more secure system.
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