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Fir... just kidding.
Anyway, since my comments seem to be directly responded to in you post, I thought I'd comment.
1. I'm thrilled to hear that the move to a different OS has intrigued you. As I said in one of my other posts, I think the end result, not matter the OS you choose, will be that you look at security, thought processes, software style, etc in a different light. And that is always a good thing. I know th point of the trial was to look at things from a "layman's" perspective, but now your true colors have come to the surface, and are looking deeper. I just hope you are having fun doing it, and learning something new. Most of us linux geeks had to make the same transition, which is why we are so very supportive, and want to help people have the fun we have, not to mention the philosophical paradigm shift that can happen when you start understanding free/libre.
2. I wholeheartedly agree that is can be a challenge at first. Everyone who disagrees is a zealot who is not being honest with themselves. Wireless is one of the issues I think linux people are working as hard as they can on, and they have come a long way, but for really new hardware, it is not quite there yet. I think some changes are coming due to some red hat work going on. My comment was more that it was your desire to turn off G was some of the cause of the issues, but I think the end result was that you were able to do something within a couple of weeks of trying out a new os that most people never learn on windows (what, you've never compiled a program on Windows)? It's your computer, you should be able to do what you want. I'm just hoping that as more people use linux, more hardware gets supported "out of the box". As for the forum, it just needs to reload the window with the post values still set, and allow you to re-enter the verification code. The fact that it doesn't give you a second try is what kills me.
3. I heard the same thing from a non-geek friend recently about the apps for her android phone. It IS hard to find the best program without a little research. This is one of the nice things that is aided for new users by the add/remove menu in Ubuntu (and possibly other distros, but I can't speak to that). It at least gives you the top few programs, instead of the thousands in the repos, not to mention the gazillions of source code only versions out there. So, at least there are scales here. Now, to be fair, go search for a pdf printer program for windows. How many programs do you find? Which is the best? Which is SAFE?
4. See the last note about safety, and you hit the nail right on the head. Another valid point about the beauty of repos is software updates. On Windows, you hunt for updates program by program. On linux, most of them are updated from the update manager, which means the vast majority of the apps used are not just stable versions, but stable versions with bugs fixed and security updated.
5. Yeah, some software is better baked than others, you are absolutely correct (for example, if I had more free time I'd probably try to lean to program c++ so I could fix some bugs in pdf-edit). On the other hand, see the above example of the pdf printer for windows. There are hundreds of them, and most have a large number of bugs, leave things hanging around your comp on uninstall, and some may or may not have spyware. Most also cost around $20. So, Linux is not alone in the half-baked software department. And I know a number of people that complain about the $20 program they bought that has issues, but they continue to use it because they paid for it. At least with FOSS, you have a chance to fix bugs or move on to another program without losing more than time.
6. Yeah, I think the distros absolutely have some really nice features. On the other hand, I think I liked XP more than vista, unless you are talking eye candy. But you are correct - it can be daunting to find the right distro to use at first (and you have more than enough experience with this). That is why it is good to have people around to make suggestions you can learn from, and thankfully more and more people are getting to know friends who try out that subversive OS.
I'm happy to decided to extend, and I will definitely keep the rss bookmark and checkin on the forums. How are the other folks doing?
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