I am mainly a Windows and OSX user - however, that does not stop from occasionally attempting to use Linux as a desktop operating system. I do use Linux to run all of my servers, just not my desktop machines. Regardless of what operating system I prefer to use daily, sometimes change is good.

I have blogged about my trials with Linux (mostly Ubuntu, though I have messed with other distributions in a virtual machine) and generally, the result is not too good, however, this post will be a little different in its tone.

Alright, so I install Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04) - the install is relatively quick and quite painless. Good so far. Now to get my dual monitors working - install nvidia-settings and configure the second monitor. Works almost flawlessly, it was unable to update my xorg.conf file, so I had to do it manually based on the configuration it provided to me. Restart X and now I am back in business with both monitors working. I must say I was impressed how relatively painless it was to setup and how it well it manages the monitors as two separate ones instead of just cloning them.

Next up - installing updates. The update system is very friendly and easy to use, it’s essentially click and go. I was a little bummed that I still had to reboot, but I’m used to that with Windows and OSX. Nonetheless, everything is still going very well.

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