You’ve heard of it, we’ve all heard of it, you’ve seen THOSE people using it at your local coffee shop.

Now don’t lie… you thought it looked kind of cool didn’t you.

Yup I’m talking about Linux, the cutting edge of operating system nerddom that always seemed so elusive, watching the hipster non-conformists pining away at their laptops, hacking strange commands into a command shell.

You start to conjure images of late night, pizza fueled keyboard shredding sessions.

Well those days are history, make the switch, you’ll be surprised at how ready Linux is for your desktop.

Wow, thats just lip-service!

Yep, your probably sick of people Microsoft and Apple bashing with usual statements like “Stop being a sheep.”, “Move away from the herd.” and “Hey! That’s my glass eye, give it back!”

The reality is that Linux isn’t for nerds anymore, and yeah you’ve been told that before but take it from a dyed-in-the-wool Windows user, I’m not going back anytime soon.

Switch away my friend.

I’ve made the switch to Ubuntu 10.10 from Windows 7, now to the UberNerds out there thats like saying I don’t take cream with my coffee anymore, but small steps.

I’ve been using Windows platforms since 1991, back in the old days of 3.0 and 3.1, back when ‘Eggplant’ was the most hideous colour scheme and we were all slaves to our Config.sys.

So if I was so engrossed with the Windows platform, why switch?

I’m a Knowledge Worker and as such dependence on platform specific software is inevitable. Industry standard software in my field means dependence on Microsoft’s tools such as the Office platform. The move to Ubuntu at least on my netbook releases me from the proprietary spiral.

I’m an advocate of Open Source Software and its benefits, there is plenty of opportunity for businesses and companies to move to Open Source, even on a Microsoft platform.

Was I over Microsoft or Apple’s offerings? Not at all, in fact I firmly believe that Windows 7 is the best release of the operating system for desktops to date. OS X Snow Leopard is clearly an awesomely clean environment with great tools and even better functionality. But I was looking to release myself from platform dependence.

I like the idea that no matter the command shell / tools / operating system I’m handed, I’ll be versed in or at least exposed to the environment.

I really hate the scenario where as a user I’m provided a computer and have to say “I’m sorry, I don’t know how to use [insert OS here]”

I have had and still have Windows, I also own an Mac and love both operating systems for different reasons. But for some reason Ubuntu feels like home to me.

It’s all a bit mysterious…

Well, it can appear to be on the surface.

Everyone loves to know where there stuff is on their computer, so when you give someone who uses the regular OS choices a look at the Linux system file structure you get a puzzled look, a quick attempt and an ultimate ‘too hard basket’ approach.

Give a Windows tech a Linux command prompt and after they have exhausted the CD and DIR commands you usually end up with a ‘this thing is plain stupid’ result.

And so the mystery of Linux lives on.

But in reality, it couldn’t be simpler (well it probably could… don’t quote me on that).

I’ve been using Ubuntu ever since the release candidate of 10.10 Maverick Meerkat, so as I said, not for too long, but like most tech nerds I have tinkered with Linux / Debian over the years. Red Hat, Fedora Core, OpenSUSE, Gentoo, SLAX, yep I’ve played for a while but never thought “Wow this can totally replace my existing desktop”.

I was locked to the Adobe suite of creative apps so Windows/Mac were my only options, now in another life I’m not dependent on the same tools and can explore desktop options more freely.

Be like Nike – Just do it.

Take the plunge, download Ubuntu Wubi Installer, hell grab the whole desktop ISO and dual boot with your Windows installation.

The easiest way to try it out as always is to install it to a USB Flash Drive.

I cannot recommend higher using either Universal USB Installer from PenDriveLinux.com or Unetbootin to configure a USB drive for Linux installs.

I do prefer the Universal USB Installer however, it has the advantage of setting up persistent storage on the key for the OS and seems to cover a lot of different distros.

Once you’ve installed it to USB just reboot, choose to boot of your USB key (usually ESC or a Function Key), then begin to play!.

Here's a list of websites to get you started:

OMG! Ubuntu – General Ubuntu news and reviews.

Ubuntu.com Help – Help from the horses mouth.

Ubuntu Geek – Tips, Tuts, How-to’s.

Ghacks – Linux Category – Ubuntu news, tips and hacks.

Psychocats – Ubuntu Resources, Tips, How-to’s.

AskUbuntu – Q&A for Ubuntu users and Developers (think StackOverflow).