I started my PC experience as a Mac user sometime around 1990, I guess. Having a parent in the education sector, it was the only choice really! My first Mac was the Performa 400, a monster PC with a 40MB hard drive and 4 MB RAM.

I remained a devoted Mac geek until just before the first iMac came out; about 1998. The lure of PC gaming got too much for me, and I moved to a Windows based PC.

I’ve been a loyal Windows fan (yes, we do exist!) until about a week ago, when I made the move to Linux. Ubuntu, to be exact.

I had always liked Windows – to the point of getting really annoyed about Linux enthusiasts on Digg. Even though other, cooler, web developers had long since moved on, I held steadfast in my Windows resolve. I always had a soft spot for asp.net, despite the vast majority of my work being PHP related. So what changed?

My previously athletic PC had gradually slowed to a near stop. I kid you not, it now takes around 15 minutes before my PC starts behaving itself after a Windows startup! I figured I had nothing to lose – if this failed, it was probably time for a new PC anyway.

What a difference with Ubuntu. Despite having every bit of eye candy switched on (wobbly windows, desktop cube…the lot), my knackered old PC runs like a dream. It just does everything I ask it to do, immediately. There is no learning curve as such – my only minor irritation being a troublesome install of Apache / PHP. In the end, though, I have to concede that it was my fault, not Ubuntus.

My old PC has been given a new lease of life.

Thank you, Ubuntu!