Local blogger Becky McKimmy has published A new user’s review of Linux.
She clears out some key pros and cons she sees with Linux and concludes "All in all I have been very impressed with Ubuntu Linux 7.10 and would recommend it to anyone who is willing to learn a new operating sytem.". read the full article

Nearly all the software on my laptop is open source, but one proprietary program I've used nearly daily is Adobe Reader 7, (formerly "Acrobat Reader"). Finally, I've found an open source replacement.

Challenges

Hopi wanted to trade in her desktop computer for a laptop to better match her lifestyle. She had a budget of $400 for the new system, plus any money earned from the sale of the old system, an expected value of $300. She was interested in Linux, but really liked the Microsoft Money program, and was concerned about finding a solution that would meet her needs at least a well.

Challenges

Martha's Mac Performa was dead. The monitor worked, but she needed a complete hardware and software solution otherwise. She could not really afford a new computer, and needed to spend an absolute minimum.

She lives three hours away and does not plan to connect her computer to the internet, so it would be difficult for me to help remotely. She needed a solution that required no training. She needed to be able to take care of her own system administration nearly all of the time.

However, her software needs were simple: She wanted to use a word processor and spreadsheet, and have Windows compatibility.

Challenges

I have been using open source on my home desktop machine since 2001. However, for my work desktop, I demand a higher degree of usability. At home I like to "tinker" with computers. At the office, I want my computer to be very stable and "just work" so I can get my job done.

When I my aging Mac showed signs of death in 2004, I felt that MandrakeLinux was up to the challenge of being the replacement system.

I wanted official support for Linux on the new hardware, and I wanted offical support for the software as well.

Challenges

Ehren was excited about dumping Windows and moving completely to Linux. However, he depended on two Windows applications which had no equivalent in Linux. One was a software application specifically for running a massage business. Another was a special application for connecting to his particular credit union to do online banking.

Also, Ehren was used to using Quicken, and would need a suitable alternative.

Challenges

Kurt wanted a Linux solution his whole family could use, including his wife and two pre-teen children.

His wife Amy was used to using WordPerfect and preferred it. For the children, it was important to have games on the system, especially "The Sims".

Also, they had been using Juno for their ISP, and wanted to keep it to preserve their e-mail address as well, as well as continue taking advantage of that low cost service.

Challenges

The first challenge with helping Matt was that he was a long-time Macintosh user. Mac users tend to have higher standards about how well their user intefaces and experiences should work. Linux has a reputation for being weaker in this area, to the extent of being "not good enough" in some cases.

Matt needed a low budget solution, which ideally would involve installing Linux onto his existing 180 Mhz Umax PowerPC Mac clone. The machine would not officially support Mac OS X, and development of Mac OS 9 applications was stagnating, especially free, open source software.