Progressive Overload

My first experience with Linux was my (nervous) install of Kubuntu (6.06) on my laptop, wiping out for good my Windows XP instance.  Immediately, I didn't really like the KDE desktop and I was a complete noob so I never really realized how much you could customize KDE.

So, after a couple short days running Kubuntu Dapper, I did a whole new install to wipe out Kubuntu, and start using Ubuntu (the Gnome desktop environment)...yeah, i know a better way now :)!

For nearly a year I ran and loved Ubuntu/Gnome and never looked back.  I was very fond of trying different OS's/distros on my home desktop.  I zipped through Vista, OSX, a ton of Linux distros...just playing. 

Then, pretty recently, I gave Dave a computer which he ended up giving to his wife.  He faced a big challenge getting Ubuntu to recognize the wireless card he was using, and he finally found a distro that made using the ndiswrapper a VERY easy task.  In his research he discovered Mandriva 2007 . 

Now up to this point, I was using Ubuntu 6.06 and was really loving Beryl/AIGLX but  was really not liking how much processor use I was seeing. 

Pic of my desktop running Beryl:

Mandriva 2007 was a nice answer to this, as it comes pre-packaged with a 3D desktop (via Compiz).

The answer was clear, I "needed" to a new OS. ;)

So, I proceeded to install Mandriva 2007, but used the KDE version just to see what I thought.  Since I was wiping it all out anyways might as well try something new right? 

After a few minutes setting up the "look" I was in love with Mandriva 2007.  

Well, the love started fading pretty quickly when I realized the package management for Mandriva wasn't very good, the stock kernel didn't recognize all of my RAM, and it just didn't have the activity/support that the (k)ubuntu distros had.

But, what I realized in this journey, is that after a little customizing, I really enjoy using KDE instead of Gnome.  This kinda fit as many of the apps I used happen to be K apps...Amarok, K9copy, ktorrent, KRDC (probably more if i think about it). 

Now, the distro/desktop of choice on all of my computers is Kubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft).  Can't get much better than this in my opinion.