what is better Windows Vista o ubuntu?

i use win xp but my bet is for ubuntu

If you ask me... Everything not coming from Microsoft is better....


So my vote goes for Ubunty....

I've recently switched from WindowsXP to XUbuntu (fastest ubuntu distribution). And must say, that it gets some getting used to at first. But to me it is way better then WindowsXP. As it is way more stable.

For instance, I have old Pentium III ( 1Ghz ) system running WindowsXP and I could only open about 25 website website until it ran out of resources, became too slow, or sometimes even crashed. But now with XUbuntu I have about 50 pages open, almost no speed lost and was even running the image editor Gimp which had 6 large wallpaper sized images opened. So I had a look at my resources to see why it was not slowing down my system and found that it was not using any swap file. So it simply used my internal memory ( 1GB ) and did not need any extras. Now that is what I call an operating system!

Also with Windows I was already using free opensource software anyway. Like Pidgin (MSN client), Firefox (web browser), Thunderbird (email program) and OpenOffice (word, excel replacement), SMPlayer (media player). So the transition for me at least was quite easy (you can simply copy the profiles etc.).

I did have some troubles getting my TV-out to work (I use it so I can watch downloaded movies on my larger TV screen). The problem is that manufacturers don't want to give out this information to the opensource community. But luckily they figured it out them selfs and I finally found an online article on how to set it up as it does require some editing in some graphical configuration files.

Another problem I had was getting to access my shared windows drives on my other windows systems. Took me a day to find this out but I simply had to install some extra 'samba' packages to make this work.

Finally what I do miss is a good image utility like Adobe Photoshop. There is Gimp as an replacement but it is just too basic for me. But I may have found a possible solution for this problem.

It seems you can set up a so called Virtual Machine (http://www.virtualbox.org). This enables you to run windows under xubuntu in as a separate task. So it emulates the hardware and you need to have some extra memory, but this enables you to run windows and all of its applications and even share the files with xubuntu. So you can get the best of both worlds. But I have not tried this out yet.

So the only regret I have is that I did not switch to this linux distribution sooner.

Cheers,
Michel

yeah i want to switch to ubunto very soon!!!

Ubuntu Linux Vs. Windows Vista: The Battle For Your Desktop
Is Linux finally ready to take on Windows as a desktop OS? We tried out both Vista and Ubuntu on individual PCs to see which works better. Here's who won.

By Serdar Yegulalp
InformationWeek
abril 27, 2007 12:00 AM


The prevailing wisdom about Linux on the desktop runs something like this: "I'll believe Linux is ready for the desktop as soon as you can give me a Linux distribution that even my grandmother can run."




For some time, the folks at Ubuntu have been trying their best to make Granny -- and most everyone else -- happy. They've attempted to build a Linux distribution that's easy to install, use, configure, and maintain -- one that's at least as easy as Windows, and whenever possible, even easier. As a result, Ubuntu is one of the Linux distributions that has been most directly touted as an alternative to Windows.

In this feature, I'm going to compare the newly-released Ubuntu 7.04 (codenamed "Feisty Fawn") with Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Windows Vista in a number of categories. To keep the playing field as level as possible, I'm looking wherever I can at applications -- not just in the sense of "programs," but in the sense of what the average user is going to do with the OS in a workday. Sometimes the differences between the two OSes are profound, but sometimes the playing field levels itself -- OpenOffice.org, for instance, is installed by default in Ubuntu, but adding it to Vista isn't terribly difficult.




I tried to stick whenever possible with preinstalled software, although this rule sometimes had to be bent a little -- for instance, to see what backup solutions were available for Ubuntu through its own software catalog.

Also, while I was tempted to compare Vista's Aero interface to the Beryl window manager (which has a similar palette of visual effects), I decided that pretty graphics, while nice, had more to do with personal preference than efficiency. In addition, Beryl isn't installed by default in Ubuntu, and Aero isn't available on all PCs.

In each case, I've tried to look at practical benefits rather than theoretical ones -- what works, what doesn't, and what you have to do to get certain things done. I should also note that, despite being a big fan of Vista, I've tried to keep my enthusiasm for it from overriding my judgment. Everyone needs something different, and not everyone needs (or wants) Vista -- or Ubuntu -- so I've done my best to keep my mind, and my eyes, wide open.

to read more

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199201179

The review is from the previous version of Ubuntu. In all not a bad review but not all views are correct. For instance he clearly did not know you could import emails from Microsoft Outlook into Mozilla Thunderbird email program and then simply copy the profiles to the Thunderbird program on Ubuntu.

But its like he says in the conclusion if you mostly need a pc for the day to day use like email, websites, documenting etc. then Ubuntu is great.

But if you want to run the latest windows games and modeling tools like 3D Studio Max or the good image editor Adobe Photoshop then you will need windows. At the moment I am trying out that VirtualBox utile (to have windows installed onto Ubuntu) and so far it seems to work. I got sound, cdrom and even network support. What I installed so far is Windows XP with Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended. It took some time to install it but now it seems to be very quick and responsive. Tonight I will be checking out if editing images is going well.