When trying out Linux for the first time there are a huge amount of distributions to choose from - it can be quite baffling for a noobie such as myself to know where to start! Previously I'd poked about a bit with Redhat/Fedora and had used Knoppix/Ubuntu live CD's for data recovery purposes, but otherwise had very little in the way of experience with Linux.  I followed the advice of Ben and tried out Kubuntu - Ubuntu with KDE - http://www.kubuntu.org/.

Installation

Installation took suprisingly long - probably twice as long as a Windows 7 installation - but when it was installed, pretty much everything was done and set up.  Updates had been retrieved during installation so I was using the most recent versions of the software, and pretty much everything you would need was already installed - an Office suite, email/calendar software, web browser, audio player, instant messenger ..... even a twitter application!

Although I said installation took its time, if you add onto the Windows 7 installation setting up all the various applications then I expect Kubuntu would probably come out as faster.  Also, during the installation a presentation takes you through some examples of programmes you can use to do the various tasks which you'd probably be used to having in Windows - so it gives you the names of some applicatons for graphical stuff, office, emails, photo management and so forth.  A nice touch.

Setting up

To be honest, there wasn't an awful lot to do with setting up.  Every single device on my new HP G72 laptop was installed and ready to go.  The wireless was trying to connect but I hadn't added my MAC address to our access point - as soon as I did this it connected seamlessly when provided with the password.  The battery use indicator was really nice as it gives you a dropdown on the left-click menu from the tray to change between power plans - ideal if you're doing a presentation and need to ensure the screen doesn't switch off etc.

One thing I've not yet been able to accomplish is synchronising my Kontact calendar with my Google Apps calendar - although truth be told, it was a bit of a grunt getting this working properly in Windows anyway!

Applications

Finding and installing new applications couldn't be easier, even if you don't know the name of what you're looking for!  Unlike Windows the search feature on the start menu is VERY quick and much more intuitive - search for 'software' then click 'get and remove software' and then either browse by categories, or use the search.  Personally I found browsing by categories to be most useful as you can see what is out there to be used!

I've still not completely settled on all the applications - I struggle with a lot of my corporate documents which were set up in Office 2010 and the styling is completely ugly in OpenOffice, so I may have to run some Windows programmes under an emulator for this purpose.  Also I've had a few glitches with applications taking over default operations - for example, kimagemap seems to try to open any hyperlinks now rather than the browser, which is a bit annoying, and Audacity now opens all my audio files - haven't quite figured out how to change this but it's a learning process after all!

Summary

So far, I'm actually mildly impressed with how quickly i've been able to pick things up using a Linux system.  I'm by no means a command line guru but the aim of this experiment was to see whether I could pick up and use Linux as a main OS - the answer is yes and no.  Using it on my laptop means that I am not using it 24/7, as my work desktop runs Windows 7.  At the moment I have an awful lot of attachment to Windows and my work would suffer quite significantly to make the leap completely over to Linux, however I'm certainly being swayed by my experience so far using the laptop .. we shall see!