I have been using Linux for years.  And I hate it.  No.  Wait.  I love it!  Well, it depends on the day, actually.  I’m so torn.  Like so many others things in life, some days are better than others.  It’s been in the back of my head for more than a few years that I have always been a very specialized user of Linux.  It breaks down like this: when I want to use some cool tool or utility that doesn’t exist for Windows, I boot up a Linux distro and do what it is I want to do.  When I’m done I return to Windows.  I have been dual-booting for a long time and I’d say about 95% of my time is spent with Windows running.  The rise of ultra-cool bootable distros like Backtrack3 have eliminated the need for me to even run a dual boot system.  Because I have multiple computers I have found myself running Windows exclusively and using a bootable DVD with Backtrack on it when I need some ‘nix.

Even though I have tried more than once to use Linux as a desktop OS I always seem to fizzle out after a day or so and go back to Windows.  The reason for my failure may be in multiple parts.

1. I know Windows really well.  I know where everything is and I know how to do most anything I want.  It’s a comfortable place for me so I tend to gravitate toward it.
2. A lot of what I do was originally created on Windows.  Day-to-day work puts me face-to-face with Powerpoint, Excel, Access, ACT! and Quickbooks.  I know how to use them and they are largely bullet-proof (ACT! kinda sucks, though).  Microsoft Office products have been developed for years and the version I use (Office 2007) is feature rich.  Every time I have tried to use OpenOffice Impress in the past I have gotten frustrated within minutes and switched back to PowerPoint.
3. The Linux GUI is a little clunky compared to Windows.  But I’m not 100% sure if it’s clunky or if it’s just different from Windows.  I wonder if I’m not a victim of my Windows familiarity again.  Linux die-hards will shrug at this because they do everything from the command line.  Why run X?  It just uses resources, right?
4. I have to admit that I don’t know the where everything is in Linux.  I often search for things in the GUI but I really get lost trying to find things in the file system.  In Windows I know where the files (and registry settings) are located and how to modify them.  With Linux, this isn’t always the case for me.  I find myself searching Google to learn where a setting is stored.  While it’s cool to learn new things it gets annoying when you’re just trying to get some work done.
5. Linux is not nearly as “plug and play” as Windows.  At least not in my experience.  It has made leaps and bounds in recent years but I always seem to have fewer problems getting hardware to work with Windows.
6. I connect to a lot of resources on Windows computers.  Accessing the Windows files using CIFS (SMB) is totally do-able with Linux but it isn’t as seamless as it is with Windows to Windows connections.
7. A biggie:  Outlook Web Access.  OWA SUCKS on any browser other than IE.  Firefox on Windows and LInux give a functional yet very ugly OWA experience (IETab for Windows Firefox rocks the house!!!)  Because I move from computer to computer so much I’m not much into POP3-ing my mail.  I like OWA.  The intense level of suckiness of OWA on Linux has actually kept me away for years.

I say all of this because today I am going to begin a Windows hunger strike.  I am going to try and use Linux exclusively as my desktop OS.  In order to keep myself going I will be telling you how it’s going.  I hope to report daily (perhaps multiple times each day) but we’ll see how it goes.

Other than formulating my own opinion on whether Linux is really viable on the desktop I don’t have any real agenda.  I am one of what seems to be a minority of people who loves Vista.  Once you get a PC or notebook that is beefy enough to handle it, that is.

So here it begins.  I actually wrote this post on a laptop with a fresh install of Fedora Core 9.  I went back and forth when deciding which distro to use.  I initially wanted to use Ubuntu but decided on Fedora because it seems to be more common and have better support.  I may be wrong on that point.  I’m about to find out for sure.  If this goes well I’ll consider giving SuSe and Mandriva a look.  We’ll see.

Wish me luck…

Colin Weaver