First of all I just want to introduce myself. I am a graduate of computer technician in my place (Philippines) and I have assembled several dozens of desktop PC's from internet cafes, homes and offices. I have also repaired several dozens of desktop PC's and laptops including upgrading, repair and maintenance.
This month I just build my own desktop PC system. It is my second desktop PC, my very own actually. These are the specs of my PC: It is powered by Intel Pentium E2140 Dual Core @ 1.6GHz, Kingston 1GB memory, an ECS 945GCT-M2/1333 motherboard, Western Digital 80 GB 7200RPM SATA hard drive, an LG 20X DVD-RW dual layer SATA optical drive, an Enforcer by Astone Case with 500 watts ATX PSU and a LG 17-inch Flatron CRT monitor. As you can see my desktop PC is not that powerful. You can say that my PC is cheap, well yes it is! But I will tell you that my machine can be as powerful as those from the high end model components.
After assembling and putting the different components of my own PC, I installed it with Windows XP. Unfortunately, after succesfully installing Windows XP in my computer after several minutes of running, I noticed that my Task Manager is gone. I could not access to it even that I am the administrator (will somebody help me troubleshooting this!). I tried different ways of installing Windows XP in my computer but same thing happens, I could not gain access with it's Task Manager. After several hours of trying to spot the problem, after several hours of reading the forums in MS-Windows, I said to myself "stupid Bill Gates software! I had it you!" I was so upset and mad at Bill Gates software. This is the first time that I installed Windows XP that has never succesfully installed because of the Task Manager issue. So what I did, I grabbed my Ubuntu-Linux Live CD, pop it in my DVD drive of my computer and boot it with Ubuntu-Linux.
When Ubuntu-Linux booted I was greeted with the Gnome desktop interface. It is a nice and simple desktop. Ubuntu-Linux is very simple to install, even simpler than Windows XP installation process. Installation process only takes 20 minutes to install on my computer without a hitch! All of my peripherals were detected, my HP Deskjet 2460 printer was detected automatically without any issues encountered. My ECS 945GCT-M2/1333 which is a MS-Vista certified, was easily detected by Ubuntu-Linux including the sound, USB, LAN and the video card.
After installing Ubuntu-Linux in my PC, I installed the restricted formats like DVD playback, MP3 support and Flash player since these features are not supported by Ubuntu-Linux due to FOSS issues, but these are easy to install these plugins in Ubuntu-Linux. All you have to do is set all the repositories (main, universe, restricted, multiverse) . These features in Ubuntu should be enabled so that you can watch DVD, watch youtube, play MP3 etc.
Ubuntu-Linux is a simple distro but pack with power. Even more powerful than Windows Vista/XP. I encouraged you all to try it.
