The Wind Of Change
I had absolutely no reason to install Ubuntu onto my laptop. Except for one thing – I desperately needed to make a change in my life.
A few months back I realized I changed significantly. Indeed, I have been living in this world for 37 years, I went through a severe mid-life crisis, I gave birth to a child. I definitely became a new person and my environment didn't seem to fit me anymore.
The standard advice given to people in my position is to make a change in their lives. The best is to find a new job. If it is not feasible, then move to a new place, a new city, a new country. If it is also impossible, divorce and find a new husband, or, perhaps, change the hair color? Lately, I've been thinking through all of these options.
Unfortunately, I cannot afford to relocate, and I have absolutely no idea what kind of a job would suit the new me. And I am completely satisfied with my natural hair color after 15 years of experimenting with it. Finally, my husband expressed no enthusiasm for the idea of being replaced for the sake of change.
Then I realized that of all things my laptop expresses my personality more than anything else. And its own mid-life crisis was given away by the mess of the icons on the desktop, occasional performance glitches and flaky wireless connection. It was obvious that none of the cosmetic changes like replacing the wallpaper image would help. More radical measures were required. A completely new OS. Linux.
I learned that a new version of Ubuntu Linux, Karmic Koala, was going to be released soon. I waited patiently till the release date, grabbed it as soon as it got out and installed it on my laptop.
Now, after several months of using Karmic Koala, I don't regret my choice. Managing Linux was easier than I expected. I realized that the reason for the existence of Terminal is not to intimidate newbies, but to serve as a handy Swiss Army knife. That Gimp and Open Office completely satisfy my needs in a graphics editor and a word processor. That there are tons of Linux resources on the Internet and that Ubuntu documentation is thorough and complete – you only need to read it. I discovered many hidden treasures of Linux and really enjoy the process of study.
P.S. I can proudly declare that I inspired at least one person to do the same – to switch the OS from Windows to Linux. A friend of my husband determined that he must try Ubuntu if even a woman could manage it.