It was an interesting 3 years using Ubuntu.  Linux has come such a long way since the first time I tried it back in 1999.  It’s a usable, functional OS that has most of the features/programs that people need.  It looks good and works well.  However, it just has this unfinished feel.  It lacks polish and overall consistency.  Obviously, this is inherent when you have thousands of people working independently on different pieces of an OS…but it becomes a bit annoying when things don’t work how you expect, or a particular settings doesn’t affect everything that it should.  Also, the lack of documentation/tooltips that give you info about what a setting does is highly lacking.

For example, proxy settings in Ubuntu are not used by all applications.  It seems rather random as to which apps use those settings and which do not.  It’s so tedious to go and change the proxy settings on half a dozen different applications whenever you are using a network that needs a proxy.

The various interface themes have a bulky feel…buttons are too big, there’s too much padding between controls, etc.  The dialogue to open a file is simply enormous.  Someone with some UI experience needs to come and streamline the look and feel, and give it a modern, professional appearance.

That said…

I’ve been toying with the pre-release version of Windows 7 for about two weeks now, and it’s absolutely amazing.  It is what Vista should have been.  It’s fast, it’s stable, and it looks great.  It has features that increase productivity and usability.  The interface is clean and intuitive.  They removed UI elements that didn’t need to be there, which greatly reduces visual distraction and increases the intuitiveness of the system.

I’ve installed it on my desktop machine and my laptop (which is old and slow) and gotten excellent performance on both.  On both machines, installation was a snap.  I installed Windows 7, and once I had booted up, I ran Windows Update and it found all of my hardware drivers automatically.  This probably won’t hold true for all machines, but it worked perfectly for me.  Overall, I’m just very, very pleased with Windows 7…probably more pleased than I was when I switched from Vista to Ubuntu.  I think I’ll post a blog sometime soon about some of the things I like.  Check back!