The main things that were holding me back were the ability to run some legacy windows applications and Second Life. Well I’ve worked out ways I can get some legacy applications running (though my old games and some stuff will have to stay archived for a while as they will not run smoothly under current linux abilities). As for Second Life – Linden Labs had a linux version out for a little while – however voice and sound features have been a bit unstable. My reasons for taking the linux plunge now is that Linden Labs have now released a new beta viewer that appears to have fixed a lot of audio issues.

Anyway – on with the story – I’ve been using some linux resources for a while now – I usually have a copy or two of Knoppix about for any data backup & rescue of failed windows computers. And have been tossing up between SUSE, Fedora, Ubuntu, etc..  What I’ve settled on was Linux Mint! which is essentially a Ubuntu feel but with media and some tweaks that simply work fine right off the first install.

So far I’ve been running my main computer on Linux Mint for about a week now. Which is the longest I’ve run my main computer on so far before retreating back to Windows (so I’m breaking my own records here) Hardware-wise for my computer system some devices are not yet working – but that’s expected for some things like USB TV Tuner & Webcam. All other connected devices like hard drives, usb drives, sound and video cards, network etc.. have been operating smoothly – including my Windows/DOS volumes from my former windows setup are working without current limitations.

Software side of things – I’ve achieved the following preferred configurations:

• SecondLife – Able to run multiple viewers under the one login – as per former windows setup only the first instance will get voice abilities,
• Used Conduit to sync my internal drives with an external USB for redundancy (was using FreeFileSync for this recently)
• Email via Thunderbird
• Updated to a recent version of Mozilla Firefox with NoScript add-on for added browsing security.
• Currently testing a Sun VirtualBox session of Windows XP (my previous operating system) to see if I can run some legacy applications in a virtualised OS (for those that won’t run with native compatiability tools – sadly this won’t cover some of my good games)
• Using K3B for CD/DVD data burning. (Previously Used Nero)
• Pidgin for my Instant Messaging – has always been my favourite on the windows environment due to simplicity and no frilly crap compared to the official IM clients on various networks.
• Enhanced the desktop functionality with Compiz 3D Cube effect – with the Nvidia graphics drives this looks awesome. It may seem like usless bells and whitles now – but I can see the potential for this getting regular use on top of the classic application task switching.

In general – the overall feel of running linux mint compared to my old Windows XP setup. There are some quirky issues here and there – but nothing overly major so far (I’m not expecting a lot of my old windows stuff to run – but will be happy if I can find decent equivalent linux stuff to fill my needs). Still researching some configurations so it’s possible I may end up reinstalling a couple of times until I find a complete setup that works for me.

General application stability has been feeling better than Windows so far – some applications have frozen on me here and there – but usually come good after a few seconds or couple of minutes – and those that have crashed have not had any impact to any other applications running (unlike some windows applications that can potentially bring windows to it’s knees until you restart the computer completely.

I may post more to my new Linux blog category when I make some more ground breaking moments in my new future in a linux world. Hopefully this my help some people decide if they are ready or not for a new experience. For now I am actually using my computer with a smile on my face – things are working, stable and feels smooth! Either way this will be a record to see how long before I either run back to my old Windows style, or consider Windows 7 or later, or declare the challenge a success and end up sticking with Linux.