Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Is Linux Practical

I think I have totally crossed over now! I have been running Mandriva 2008 for the past several months exclusively. For the past several years I have been using Linux increasingly but have never been quite able step away from a Windows OS. This latest release from Mandriva, I think finally gives me the functionality to leave the pc turned off.

I have been using Mandriva for some time now, not that I am overly prejudiced to one distribution over another, but I do think that you need to settle on one and stick to it. Many of the IT folks I know that dabble with Linux on the desktop, hop from distribution to distribution and never get to know one particularly well.

Some Features I like.

Music Players
I love the Amarok music player. The integration with Wikipedia gives you easy access to information about the artist you are listening too, and the lyrics are handy too through the context tab.

IM Clients
Pidgin is my favorite IM client, the tabbed sessions, and the ability to connect to virtually any interface, make this my hands down favorite. Pidgin also runs fine on XP.