Ubuntu Users' Stories
Below you will find Ubuntu Stories submited by people all around the World. Most of them are in english, but we are also allowing other langauges.
If you want to contribute add your own story, help us to make this page more popular by telling your friends, posting it on your blog, digging it (etc), or contact us at ubuntustory@centrologic.com if you are able to translate it to your native language.
Who is using Ubuntu?
Check out who and why is using Ubuntu Linux. Read the stories below.
Chris Lucier, Self-Employed Computer Consultant & IT
I first started using Ubuntu by dual-booting it on my XP machine. After using it for a while, I had a few friends try it out for themselves to see if they like it.
I finally made the complete switch to Ubuntu upon the release of Ubuntu 8.04. I currently use an ASUS Eee PC with Ubuntu 8.04 installed. It runs fast, smooth and looks way better than any Windows machine I've ever run.
I've also used OpenSUSE, and a few other Linux distros. I liked each one for various reasons, but Ubuntu is the one I really like the most.
Caleb, Computer repair/sales
I recently opened a Computer Repair business in a college small town. Although most of my customers are windows users, I take every opportunity to educate them about opensource software, and especially Ubuntu. I have installed Ubuntu on many customers computers who were fed up with endless viruses, spyware, and crashes. I run ubuntu on all of my systems and allways take the time to show customers compiz and the suite of free programs. There is a small community of ubuntu users here and it's growing daily. I'm even considering offering weekly classes to bring together enthusiests and broaden the knowlege and community.
Robert, Programmer
I have been on and off of Linux since the days of Red Hat 5. Back then it was really difficult to get hardware and drivers to work. Lately I have been looking for a distro where the wireless card would work out of the box with no ndiswrapper shenanigans. I loaded vista about 2 months ago and recently found Ubuntu 8.04 and realized I was just wasting my hard drive. No dual booting system for me, vista is gone baby gone. I had vista wiped, Ubuntu loaded the wireless internet working and system updated in about 1 hour. Microsoft, beat that!!
Dallis Brockway, Student
I have been using Ubuntu since 2006, and have enjoyed all of my experiences. Admittedly, in 2006 Ubuntu was a little difficult to use, but I overcame these difficulties and learned a lot about Linux, Ubuntu, and the Ubuntu community through these problems.
Now, over two years later, Ubuntu no longer has any of these problems I had to grapple with, and I have become very proficient in its use. Now I help spread the word of Ubuntu and help people to install it and help with any problems they may have. All of my services are free (in keeping with the 'free' aspect of Ubuntu), but more often than not people still pay me very hefty fees for helping them. I have even had the privilege of convincing a small business to switch to Ubuntu, and I have not had a complaint from them at all.
schwim, IT Manager
I run Ubuntu as my primary system at work, with Windows XP in a virtual server for when I can't find a workable equivalent in linux. Personally, I think the Ubuntu name is dumb, but it is a solid distribution that pretty much just works.
Ben, Student
So, I was at my friends house trying to connect to his internet, but for some reason something was screwed up with my WLAN card. My friend who is fairly familiar with Linux came over to try and help me, he got the bright idea that we should just swap my Windows XP for Linux Ubuntu...I was quite skeptical at the time, change is hard when you are use to one thing. So, he goes out to his car where he conveniently had the install disk and went to work on my laptop. Keep in mind this is an almost brand new laptop, an Inspiron 1520 with 3GB of RAM, so I was very hesitant to put anything that comes free on it. We had some difficulty with the disc he had (a chip about the size of a pinhead). So we needed a new disc. He went home for the night and came back the next day with the disc in hand. This one installed without trouble, and I've been running Ubuntu ever since and I am incredibly impressed with it. The only thing I'm still a bit sketchy with is the Terminal feature...but I've only been with Linux for 2 days now so their is plenty of time for that.
John Alatalo, Sweden., Work as a car/truck mechanic
I bought a new Dell PC with Windows Vista pre-installed. Was very dissapointed when I could not use my printer with it. Vista blocking it for some reason even with Vista drivers installed from the manufactor and I never get it fixed. Other program works bad and slow to. The printer worked fine with XP. So I get tired of Vista at the end and replaced to XP. Installed Ubuntu to so I got dualboot. I never will use Vista again.
James, Small Business Owner
I first realised how much I disliked Windows after using a friend's Mac.
When I saw that some people didn't have to struggle with Windows, and that there was 'another way', I couldn't wait to rid myself of Microsoft's rubbish!
Whilst browsing the web, I kept finding references to Linux, so I decided to give that a go. After some research, I decided that Ubuntu would be the best place to start.
I installed it about two years ago and have never looked back!
Now I hate it whenever I have to use a Windows system on other people's pc's. It's so frustrating compared to Ubuntu, and I don't understand why people put up with it. I think it's because they simply aren't aware that there is an alternative.
I've had the odd problem here and there, but the community support is phenomenal and any problem I have had has been sorted out extremely quickly by volunteers.
I have been using Ubuntu ever since I first tried it two years ago.
I have not had one single system crash, and my pc runs just as fast as it did when I first installed it. I never turn my pc off, and it's permanently connected to the internet.
I'd like to see a Windows box do the same....
Troy Earley, College Student
I learned about Ubuntu through my university's LUG, so as soon as school got out, I installed Kubuntu on my new laptop. My laptop is a little over a year old, so it came with Vista installed. Since I installed Kubuntu 8.04, I've only used Vista once, to run a Windows CLI script to make a bootable Linux flash drive. I'm thinking about ditching Vista altogether to single-boot Kubuntu.
Narayana Moorthy, Retired Mining Engineer.
My problem with UBUNTU earlier versions was partitioning and accessing network. Now with a Wubi installation, I run a duel boot with
vista Ultimate 64 bit and Ubuntu 8.04 AMD 64. The driver support is amazing and all my peripherals work without myself having to do anything about it. This is just great and though I have no problems with Vista Ultimate as well, Ubuntu definitely is faster and is the preferred OS for the family.
Thanks for the team that put such a hard work in bringing out this excellent version.
Karel, Student
I've been using Ubuntu since about a year and i think its great, much better then windows! But the only thing I "dislike" about ubuntu (linux in general more) is that's for some programs it is impossible or very difficult to use on Ubuntu. But you have always an alternative, and that's nice. Keep up the good work!!!
John, Student
I began dabbling with Slackware in 1999, on my first-gen iMac. Linux wasn't ready for me, and vice-versa. In The Summer of '06 I decided to give it another shot. I set up a quad-boot with Ubuntu, openSUSE, Fedora and XP. I tried to spend an equal amount of time on each, completing similar tasks within each system.
I found myself using Ubuntu more and more. it just felt right. I was a bit timid at first. Beginning in November of '06, I would use Ubuntu for play, and Windows for school work. When Spring semester ended, on May 1st, 2007, I made the big switch. I have never looked back, and Ubuntu has met and exceeded all of my requirements for work and play.
If I have to use Windows on another computer, it's a real disappointment. Over a year later, I am a proud Ubuntu adherent and advocate. Computing will never be the same. I will never settle again.
Amit Gupta, Software Engineer
I started using linux about 3 years back with fedora core. It used to be painful to setup hardware for my then new laptop. Then I moved to suse and mandrake. All these linux had a bad repository/package management system back then (I still remember how difficult it was to run mplayer on suse, or even fedora). However when I tried ubuntu 7.04, I became a fan of the apt packet management system, and the ease with which I could install/run various softwares (compiz-beryl was one of my favs) on my laptop. Since then, I have chucked dualboot, and switched to ubuntu only. The only problem in ubuntu now is that upgrade is not possible with desktop cd download.
Using Hardy these days.......
kevin smith, i work in a catering business and work part time repairing computers
A year and half ago i made the mistake installing vista on my computer after a month using it my computer started to act strange and one day after coming home from work found myself looking at the blue screen of death.
After multiple atemps to fix the problem and not able to do a system reinstall i gave up and a friend gave me a ubuntu disk i installed it and never looked back never had a problem again.
I now install ubuntu and any other ubuntu OS that i can on any computers that i fix and are able to sell ubuntu made me a believer that there is something better than Microsoft.
Fox Buchele, Student
I started using Ubuntu when my hard drive crashed, erasing Windows. I didn't have any backups or Windows cds, so I installed Ubuntu single boot, because it was free, and I needed to type some papers.
A year and a half later, I've learned so much more about computers and I continue to use Ubuntu, single boot, and laugh at people that get viruses, or have their Windows machines crash for no reason.
Ubuntu on my computer was the smartest technological decision I ever made.
John, Automotive Engineering & Business Consultant
After a week of one-too-many BSODs in mid 2005, I happened across a reference to the download link of the Slax "kill bill edition". Liking the humor in it, slightly on a whim, and slightly out of frustration, I downloaded and burned the LiveCD.
When it booted I was amazed at the quality of the user experience. I found Firefox and Thunderbird and installed them on my Windows machine, finding them fresh and capable. I started downloading a few other liveCDs and put a hard drive in an old Pentium 2 - 233Mhz pc that was too slow for Windows and started doing installs. I was looking for a distro sophisticated enough to have Open Office and yet run on that ancient pc. I ended up with Kubuntu (later I would test X/K/Ubuntu on that machine since it would be sensitive to reveal the true speed differences).
I used that P2-233 running Kubuntu 5.10 to author my consulting company's web site, from Gimp through Nvu, with only one (user induced, doh!) system crash. Next I unhooked the hard drive from my primary pc (a 1998 vintage Pentium II-450Mhz) and put an old replacement drive in it and installed Kubuntu 5.10. Used it for a while. Then installed 5.10 with LTSP in that primary pc - and had a 2.5yr old office assistant playing games on a client while I was doing work on the 'server' - fearless and without crashes. I think Microsoft announced they were discontinuing security updates for Win98/ME/2000 at about that time.
When Kubuntu 6.10 arrived I had a newer P4-2Ghz machine I'd repaired that I'm still using, but it has seen Xubuntu 7.04 and now 7.10 - to be 8.04 when work slows down and I can migrate again (and then probably leave this machine alone for a while).
I have another P4-3Ghz desktop machine specifically setup with PCLinuxOS to run the CAELinux Finite Element package, and I have a P3-500Mhz laptop that I use for presentations running 8.04 (previously 6.06) with Open Office Impress.
I did the set up for a small startup manufacturing business bootstrapping itself with in auctioned computer equipment. That system used Kubuntu with LTSP to handle client needs from the front office receptionist to the shipping department. With Freesco routers and print servers on a few machines too old to be clients as well as FreeNAS for network storage the business was all set. These packages can really keep costs low to allow more small businesses to get started - creating jobs for the local economy that might otherwise not ever exist.
When I come across someone receptive to switching to Linux, I tell them to download Firefox and Open Office on their Windows machine and try them out for a while. If they like what they see then look at installing on an older pc they might have around or do a dual-boot setup. With Wubi that advice will be changing (but I haven't had a good chance to test it out since I'm all Linux!:)
Art Hedge, CTO
Better windows than Windows.
When doing my job I am decidedly hands-on, which means I fight computer problems daily. I'm saying this not to brag, but to explain why I liked Ubuntu: it works and whatever new application I explored had little problems if any at all.
Another likable aspect is that Ubuntu can be as easy to use as Windows XP, but people who like to challenge their skills can dive as deeply as they dare to do inside the OS.
Using some applications, Compiz, for example Ubuntu (or I should say X11?) can draw some breath taking windows, more appealing than what their capitalized namesake can do.
Strike four (but not last): installing a new version is a walk in the park compared to the Russian roulette of updating to a new MS OS. The reason for that is not because the Redmond developers are not good at their job, rather because of the initially poorly designed (and never corrected) Windows archtecture.
What are you waiting for? Try it, Ubuntu is free.
Arul, Process Engineer
Being a newbie was a bit troubled when I could not get the wifi card working but with some great and abundant tutorial available on the net,I have everything working on my home desktop,work laptop a t40p & the wife's Asus eePC and have never been happier. I am amazed that such a great OS is actually free.
Devin, Student
I was a Windows user, and was very curious about Linux. I searched information on Google about Linux, and the information I received was that Ubuntu was the most secure, easy-to-use distribution and I am now a full-time Ubuntu user. Might I also add that Vista caused me many hardships.
Mike, Airport agent
I have been using Ubuntu for 6 months now and I just cant think about going back to Windows or any other system. The freedom of Ubuntu is fantastic, the graphics and the possibility to change it to what YOU like and need is great. Also all the programs I need are totally free.
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