I’m switching operating systems

A new laptop has been sitting in its unopened box on my desk for about two months. I put off setting it up partly because of time and partly because I was waiting for the right Linux distribution (the hardware was too new). I'm on vacation next week, and now that Gutsy Gibbon is here (that's not my mistress, it's the codename for Ubuntu 7.10), there's nothing stopping me from switching. Although I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Windows user, I've made up my mind to switch to Linux at work, even though Windows suits me just fine.

A side note on choosing the distribution. I picked Ubuntu because it looked the friendliest to me as a beginner. Another reason was that several colleagues use Ubuntu and can give me advice. My reasons for leaving Windows are a mixture of ideology, feelings and other irrational impulses. In brief:

• Windows is standard throughout the company. I believe in going against the grain when I can, and I get something out of it.
• Few things give a geek more pleasure than playing with something as complex as unfamiliar hardware or software. Linux is ideal for broadening both my small-scale and big-picture knowledge in areas that are still a mystery to me.
• I like the design of GNOME. Then there's compiz-fusion for the accelerated 3D desktop I've always drooled over.
• [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4Fbk52Mk1w&rel=1]
• All the Linux users tell me that working with the file system is much faster.
• Most of the tools I use for work are available on Linux too, so I'm not tied to Windows in any fundamental way. I'm a little worried I'll miss Total Commander and PsPad. For the former, I hope Krusader will be just as comfortable to use. With the latter, I'll see what turns up. That's to say nothing of Firefox, Thunderbird, Eclipse or OpenOffice, which I already use.

I hope I won't be writing in a week, like Lukáš Křečan, about How I didn't switch to Linux. If you want to try Ubuntu without installing it, I recommend a live distribution or a VMware image. I found one with Ubuntu 7.10 and Java 6 and Eclipse 3.3 preinstalled.