Its been quite a while without Windows for me. Partly due to an installation error and mainly due to the fact that I don't miss it! I just don't want to go out of my way to install it. Why is the question? I am doing almost everything I did in Windows and more in Ubuntu. Only exception is gaming. I do miss gaming, but wheres the time anyway. After office hours and reading up stuff (online and offline) leaves me very little time for games.
So lets see my activities one by one:
Music
My music collection is more playable and rather delectable now by using Amarok. A huge jump from the days of winamp and then QCD (QCD is excellent though when coupled with iZotope Ozone plugin.) Amarok really deserves all the gushing and more. It really deserves a post on its own. Native last.fm integration and kickass library are the highpoints for me.
Movies
VLC for everything! Had to take some effort to install libdvdcss to watch encrypted DVDs though.
Internet
I download a lot. utorrent was my windows torrent client for a long time and even in Ubuntu, I used utorrent through wine. Switched to Deluge for a while. Now using Azureus. Will switch to Transmission, the default client for the upcoming Ubuntu release if it supports packet encryption (so that it works with Asianet).
I kinda love using Thunderbird as a mail client. Senting mail using gmail with images inside the mail. Something I miss in the web client. And hail Google for the imap facility!
Firefox is the king when it comes to browsing. A sloth nowadays though! Hopefully the next release will fix it. Ubuntu also allows me to install Firefox addons from the add/remove software list. So cool!
Pidgin as the instant messenger. Some easy hacks and all the yahoo smileys as well!
Miro as the Internet TV. Check it out. Its pretty cool!
Other Apps
- GIMP for a little image manipulation. I miss SnagIT though. Workplace habit I guess.
- Picasa handles my photo management
- K3B for DVD writing
- Freemind for brainstorming
- Comix for reading comics
- Buoh online comics reader for the latest comic strips from the web (really cool app!)
- OpenOffice for the documentation. (Trust me. The version 2.3 is several leaps forward from the older versions)
The wonderful package management which helps me to seamlessly download these apps without a trip to the individual websites.
Last but not least, no virus and malicious attacks! :-)
And oh yeah, theres always VMWare to run Windows within Ubuntu if required. (Tried, tested, and certified!)
Will I ever go to Windows apart from at work? Surely after I buy my next system with a kickass graphics card. Got some games to play! But for other stuff? No, fucking way!
Disclosure: I am a member of the Ubuntu Documentation Team. These views and my membership are strict reflections of my liking. :-)
P.S: Didn't intentionally hyperlink the various products. Too much of a hassle! Google is your friend! ;-)
