Had a very interesting day at CeBIT Sydney. Perhaps the most surprising thing was the huge crowd around the Linux Australia stand. It took me some 20 minutes before I could get to the stand fighting my way through the crowd. By comparison the Vista desk was devoid of people. In listening in to the crowd talking to the Linux Australia crew, I heard loads of business people asking if Linux could be installed on their Laptops and Notebooks.

There is a ground swell of interest, and the more stories of successful installs, like recorded in "Reflections of a semi-nerd" the more likely people will change to Linux, most likely Ubuntu or its sister Kubuntu.

Ubuntu and Kubuntu are related, or similar operating systems. Kubuntu is based on the KDE desktop (a little more like Windows) while Ubuntu is based on the Gnome desktop. (To try out either of these two good operating systems you can visit their respective webpages and download a copy of their "live CDs". You can try before you install it, and when you are trialling it you can select to install it if you think it is going to be a good system for you to use.)

If you have a slightly older PC and you are finding that Windows is very slow, you can switch to using Ubuntu or Kubuntu and find that your machine is going a little faster and easier. The footprint of these two operating systems is smaller and allows for you to do more things at once.

However, if you are buying a laptop or notebook and it already has Windows Vista ready to install upon your purchase, you would be better suited to run Windows Vista as the manufacturer of the Notebook or Laptop has already pre-configured your machine to run Windows. There are however some manufacturers who are pre-installing Ubuntu. In that case it is a no-brainer to run Ubuntu.

Windows users will find a Linux flavored operating system a little different, but it can save you a lot if you can run a Linux flavor operating system.