For me, Ubuntu was an experiment. I had heard lots of good stuff, but of course I had to see for myself. There are pros and cons to any decision of any kind, but overall, after several months of using Ubuntu for various applications, I'm thoroughly convinced. Since my initial install, I've set up two more machines (one workstation and one server) in the office, and now use Ubuntu for anything at work where I can get away with it (basically anything that doesn't need to run our accounting software). On slower machines, I'm using Xubuntu, and getting better performance than I had anticipated.

Aside from normal everyday uses like word processing, web browsing, email, music, etc., I've now set up VNC and TSC connections to my Windows machines, Windows network printers from Linux, Linux network printers from Windows, an FTP server, an mp3 streaming/download server, an automated offsite backup system for our client data using rsync over ssh (with a Windows GUI application as the client, just for further fun), mounted my NTFS drives on my Linux system to retrieve old data, discovered the wonders of remote administration through ssh, and found that because of WinXP's file sharing stupidities, it's often easier for me to copy files between my Windows machines by using my Linux box as a middleman.

Nothing, in short, that would impress a seasoned user, but remembering that I was an absolute beginner not so long ago, I guess I can at least say that I'm learning. It's difficult to find good words with which to conclude, so for now I'll just say that the journey continues, and oddly, instead of wearing off, I find the Ubuntu novelty actually grows, as I discover more things that I can do with it, and as the few complaints (e.g. printer config) that I did have continue to vanish with regular updates.

On a last specific note, I've found printing can be a pain in the ass, so I'd like to mention that I've set up a Brother DCP-7020 multifunction on multiple Ubuntu machines and both the scanner and printer work easily and reliably. Brother has ample documentation on their web site about setup, tweaking, troubleshooting, etc., and since the scanning buttons all activate shell scripts, an experienced/adventurous user has considerably more flexibility with scanning under Linux than Windows.

 

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