Decisions are the motor
force for a life rich with fulfillment. Life without choice stagnates
and degrades into a stalemate between our dreams and our fears. A
single decision can be the turning point where a lifetime wrought
with loss and pain can lead a new path toward great wealth in
happiness. To follow a prefabricated design for your life like a
mindless drone as you embrace a false sense of security, or to cast
all caution to the wind seeking the more adventurous alternative of
defining your own path, defying the conventional truths the world has
unconsciously subscribed to, can all be dependent on a single moment
of choice.
Most choices aren't at all
so grave, but I had reached a turning point and though I hadn't come
to fully understand all present possibilities, I at least understood
that to remain where I was wasn't an option. Windows had become too
unstable and it was getting increasingly difficult to have any work
done. It's a mystery inherent to the windows operating system. It
will slow down over time regardless of how much you work against it's
inevitability.
But what other
alternatives did I have on hand? All salvaging options had been
exhausted: mc afee, northon, avast, spybot, malwarebytes, etc..
Defrag and registry cleaning had become all but null. It was obvious,
I had to remove myself from the issue entirely. I had to either buy a
new system or replace my operating system. The later seemed more
economical. After looking at the price tag on the many different
versions of the same OS software however, I realized a fresh install
of windows seven would cost me almost as much as a new cheap notebook
would, and it'd be even more restrictive than my current version
already was. Besides, the new version inevitably inherits many of the
old one's flaws while creating some problems of it's own. Plus, I
didn't have enough money in any case. One of the many free operating
systems had to be the answer.
Free software ranks high
on my favorite things list. Most free software is great in my
experience, but I have been very careful. There are indeed some very
bad apples out there, you've been warned. But free software for word
processing and spreadsheets is one thing, a whole operating system
for free is another. Can they really be equal in quality and
functionality to some of the other GNU jewels I had grown so
dependent on? It's something I had been considering for several years
past, but it never reached critical status on the list of things that
I should be moved from the back of my head to the front. However,
if invention's mother is necessity, then choice is most certainly
it's sibling.
Among contenders like
freebsd and solaris, linux quickly climbed to victory, but as I tried
to go deeper and understand linux a bit better, I'm confronted by the
realization that linux isn't an OS specifically, rather linux is more
like a really good foundation upon which many great operating systems
are built.
So choice leads inexorably
to choice. Would you prefer mint or cinnamon? Linux comes in many OS
flavors, even the kernel itself has different ones! So when I finally
decide linux is the one, is when I have to again ask, which linux? A question that boils all my previous ramblings in this post down to a
single word: Ubuntu.
The solution to my great
conundrum had been answered, but I suppose as you're reading this,
the logical question you must be asking yourself at this time would
be the the good old why? Simple, the main reason being that its one
of the easiest linux “distributions” to transition to for long
time windows users like myself. More secondary reasons would be
perhaps, how sleek and sexy I found the working environment to be or
how quick and lightweight all the interactions with the system
seemed. Other reasons arose as I actually started playing around with
the OS, as ubuntu boots up so fast on my system that I don't even
care for standby mode anymore, and the fact that all the GNU apps I
use are native to linux and run many times faster than on windows don't hurt me none.
Also, it allows you to bend the rules of the OS and trully make it
your own. Despite being a newbie I've already done some minor changes
to the system to make it more personal. True, you can break it, if
you jump in the deep end too quickly, but the same can be said of any
other OS, but with windows you can never have this level of sheer
coolness. Just lookup “cool linux effects” on youtube and you'll
see what I mean.
So to conclude, change is
a good thing, it leads to adventure and discovery; antonyms of
boredom, and the better sources of inspiration for any artist. It can
solve problems and even prevent rust, so dare to try something
different for once, you might be pleasantly surprised! 
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