The New Gestalt
This posting I originally printed in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on July 17
I type this comment tonight from a Firefox/Thunderbird/Ubuntu 7.04 computer setup which dual-boots with Vista. In the last two months I've had occasion to access Vista three times. Codenamed Feisty Fox, Ubuntu is a much stronger and better working operating system.
The combination of Ubuntu with such programs as Firefox, the Open Office suite, and Thunderbird for e-mail, has put together an unbeatably useful and reliable operation. Free and legal, they do not give an inch of silicon to anything Microsoft produces.
This isn't done though. Working in tandem with PortableApps.com, which installs a suite of programs that runs from a usb jump drive. It includes all the wonderful programs enunciated above and such useful tools as Portable Virtual Magnifying Glass which makes anything on the screen much easier to see. PortableApps runs off Vista or XP
This tandem will get me through my senior year in college with the most fun I've had in many a year. While Vista slogs through 40 million lines of code, I will skate across the silicon using letters with sharp edges. It amazes me that all this is free for the download, and legal to use, but there is nothing Microsoft can do to get me back now.