Every customization, configuration, and connection is a struggle. It is easy to get a generic system up and running, and perhaps that is where things fall apart for me. I want (sometime need) my personal computer to connect to “stuff” - iPod, scanner/printer, network storage, blackberry, or camera, USB stick, or UPS.

From what I’ve been told, Mac’s are best at this. (Perhaps all that marketing has something to do with perception.) Windows XP does a pretty good job with “plug-n-play”. But Linux, takes effort - “debs” and “distros” and the ubiquitous “terminal window” with “sudo”. Two recent examples made this perfectly clear - I had to switch cell phones (and I like my cell phone to get its contacts from my PC’s address book). And I read a post on getting a Bluetooth headset to work.

So, where does that leave me ? I’ve decided to go with a hybrid. I have Ubuntu Linux as my workstation and a few good VMWare images for important applications. To be honest, I keep one of those images up nearly full-time so my reality is a dual-OS pc. I actually like it enough to consider it better than “just Windows” or “just Linux”. It’s Ubundows ! (OK, that’s pretty bad, but I already logo’d it <grin>) Of course, this is only possible because I have a modern PC with a fast CPU and lots of memory. Over the next week, I am going to switch both my personal and work machines over to Ubundows. Obviously, I’ll make full image backups first. (Fortunately, my office runs with gigabit networking and a 1.5TB NAS.)

The part I like most about Linux is that is has not become bloated. I really can not understand how Windows has become so fat. It could be all of that plug-n-play stuff but I doubt it. And if it were, why not make it transient - only in memory when it needs to do the install and configuration ? Or, it could be all of the embedded code to make applications run better - but that only makes sense if it also made those apps smaller; which is definitely not the case. I don’t know enough to have the answer but I do know enough to keep looking for better answers. For now, that is Ubundows.