Andy and I both spent last night fiddling with our operating systems. His went smoothly. Mine took something like 4 hours. Note to self: stop changing your partitions. It’s going to end in tears some day.

I’m a pretty low-level Linux enthusiast. Thing is, I’m enthusiastic but not very knowledgeable; I know just enough to get my shit done and sound smart if I’m talking to someone who doesn’t know more than me. And while I’m well aware that Linux is not the solution for every computer user, I still try to convert everyone at all times. There’s a running joke that my uncle and I are in a feud to convert the family away from Windows — except he’s a Mac user¹. I may be the only person making the joke.

We switched away from Windows not out of any allegiance or philosophy², but because we were using the release candidate of Windows 7 passed on to us by a friend — and when it expired, we couldn’t afford a new copy. We went to Ubuntu. I spent about two weeks cursing and googling and swearing I’d sell a kidney to get a copy of Windows 7. Then all of a sudden I started to get it. I found the programs I liked. It was all good.

Two and a half years later, we both finally switched away from Ubuntu. Andy started it. He had recently upgraded to 11.04, and getting dual monitors to work was a nightmare. He would work on it every couple of weeks, and it would get so close but never quite right. After some more googling. it seemed like most references to dual-monitor setups mentioned Fedora. He created the CD, booted it up, and tested it out. A window moved easily from his left monitor to his right monitor, no fiddling required. “Sold,” he said as he started the installation.

That is the benefit of having a powerful computer. The bastard.

I have an Acer AspireOne netbook. Somewhere in my drafts I have an entire post dedicated to the things I love about it, and there are things I love about it. I would be lying if I said that it was powerful, though. It’s not. It’s the scrawny kid in the class, and Ubuntu was getting to be a bit much for it. When Andy started talking about Fedora, I make a bootable USB and tested it it out. I didn’t like it. I wanted to. It was pretty, but it just didn’t do what I wanted it to do.

In the process of trying it out, I broke my installation of Ubuntu. I shrugged and decided to try out the beta of Ubuntu 11.10. Again, it’s pretty — not being a programmer or very knowledgeable in Linux, I judge my distribution based on how well it seems to run and how pretty it is. I liked some of the changes, but it was a nightmare. Between being a beta and probably requiring more than my poor little computer can handle, I decided to finally look around for a system better geared toward my netbook.

Enter Peppermint OS. It’s based on Ubuntu (Lubuntu, technically), so it’s not too far from my comfort zone. But it’s small — it’s snappy. I’ve been used to waiting for things to open on my computer, and now it finally responds like I want it to. It’s not working quite right out of the box — the fucking microphone on this computer, I swear. It calls itself a “hybrid OS;” it uses this program called Ice to integrate web applications in place of installed programs in something that doesn’t feel like a browser, which is really interesting and kind of slick. I still prefer programs on my computer, but I’ve used it from some things. (Read: Angry Birds for Chrome. Okay, and Google Docs.)

It works differently, and it’s not as sleek; it doesn’t look bad, just more basic. And honestly? I’m ready to sacrifice the shiny effects for the ability to multi-task again. I honestly just stared at my system monitor with mixed awe and relief.

Say what you will about operating system wars and snobbishness, but I love the flexibility that Linux allows. That yeah, I spent four hours re-partitioning my hard drive and occasionally experiment wrong and break my operating system — but it’s so easy to start new that I ain’t even bothered.

1. He’s winning. My grandmother and aunt have both been taken over by the cult of Mac; I’ve only managed to get my parents to dual-boot Windows, and I suspect they’ll use Windows more. Not that I’m actually (very) snobby about Mac anymore; even Andy wants to get a Mini so he can program stuff for the iPod/iPhone. (Is that the operating system version of saying, “I’ve got nothing against the gays — my friend is gay,” because I think it may be.)

2. Okay, Andy probably did; he had installed Linux on my old computer a while back, but my old computer was old, and it didn’t run well. It says something when your computer is so old that Linux doesn’t run well. Though to be fair, it was just whatever version of Ubuntu was out that season — Dapper Drake? Yeah, Dapper Drake.