Like every good geek I’ve dabbled with Linux a few times in the past. From a couple of attempts at getting Fedora going as a server on old hardware to the more recent Ubuntu assault on the desktop market. Unfortunately for my relationship with the ubiqtuous operating system, it’s never Just Worked^(tm).

The first problem I’ve always found is with the LiveCD. It’s a great idea, don’t get me wrong. I doubt a lot of home users would even consider just installing Linux if the option to try it out first wasn’t there but my word it’s slow. Why various distributions insist on using the heavyweight desktop environments is beyond me, because XFCE seems to do the job perfectly. Granted, some of the overhead is unavoidable – the CD drive is the inherent bottleneck, but some customisation to load more into memory would be nice.

The second problem, however, was always the killer for me. Wireless. Hours of messing around with drivers and software. The relatively recent network manager went a long way towards improving the connectivity, but that’s no use if the drivers aren’t there. Ndiswrapper would do the job, but it was just that extra bit of messing around that I didn’t need and that stopped linux being the real “install and go” operating system it needs to be.

Come last week and I decided to go back to an old laptop lying around the house, the subject of the most recent foray into the world of Ubuntu (Dapper Drake, in case you’re curious) with it’s slightly ancient Belkin adapter. It’s very basic hardware; a 1.4gHz celeron; 256mb RAM, 40GB hdd. This machine struggled with Windows XP in its day and Ubuntu was a little too much for it to be comfortable with. Startup times were slow and it always felt a little sluggish. The big issue, however, was always that wireless.

Zip forward to April 2009 and I decide on Xubuntu for the latest expedition. The basic theory behind it being that the XFCE desktop environment is smaller and faster than either Gnome (ubuntu’s default) or KDE. I don’t care all that much about the fancy effects, so that’s a non-issue.

The moment the LiveCD hit the desktop I noticed the difference. The LiveCD version of Xubuntu is faster than the installed Ubuntu with it’s default GNOME. In fact, it almost matches my 2gHz//2GB core 2 duo laptop running vista, and runs my Eee 901 into the ground. Mucho impressed-o. The 256mb of ram still gives it a bit of trouble unless I’m on the ball with keeping the number of applications down, but as a basic internet machine with a bigger screen than a netbook it isn’t holding up too badly. Especially considering that all it cost me was 600mb of bandwidth.

I was far  more pleased to note, however, that it recognised the wireless dongle as soon as it was plugged in. Getting online was no more painful than clicking the network and entering the key, although the new passphrase stumped me for a minute. For the first time ever I now have a linux installation that won’t just be put up on a shelf waiting for the next time I get the urge to tinker.

Now all it needs is for someone to make a proper OneNote-compatable note-taking program and Linux might even find it’s way onto my netbook and laptop-proper.

Edit: How strange that I should post this, then almost straight away stumble onto  someone who’s just had the exact opposite experience, the ndiswrapper and terminal tomfoolery I was so glad Ubuntu seemed to have gotten away from. Here’s the article over at PiloSEO, for anyone interested.

Whether it’s to do with the specific wireless adapter, using Xubuntu (XFCE) instead of Ubuntu (Gnome) or something else I’m not sure: maybe I did just get lucky.