I’ve been reading a lot of posts about how disgraceful it was for Apple to “force” Safari 3.1 on Windows users via Apple’s update system. Various well known bloggers and software engineers have likened Apple to spyware companies and various other nefarious businesses.

Let’s get one thing straight first and foremost, there was no forcing of software on anyone. Safari 3.1 was released, it showed up in the Apple updater for Windows–even on people’s machines who had not installed any previous version of Safari. There was no underhanded behind the scenes installation going on. Hell, nobody came from Cupertino to strong arm you into clicking that install button. You could either say “Yes, install Safari on my system” or “No thanks, Safari isn’t for me”. The choice was completely up to the user.

It all boils down to one simple question. If you were a developer in Apple’s position and you had one very popular product and another product you know people would love, but they just haven’t given it a try yet, would you do the same thing?

I don’t have a problem with it. As long as I actually have the option to say “No thanks”, it doesn’t bother me that software companies push their lesser known products like this. Of course, people should take responsibility for their computing actions and actually read what comes on their screens instead of clicking “Install” like a kindergardener doped up on a sugar high.

The situation would be completely different if Apple had tried to shove a paid product onto people’s computers. Much like Yazsoft, the company who makes Speed Download for the Mac did earlier this year with their release of Speed Download 5. While it’s gone now, they threw a paid upgrade onto the automatic updater. Tacky. And underhanded.

Why a triple boot?

I like to try new things and I need to be able to check out software on all three operating systems. In the future, I may just virtualize some Linux distro instead of giving it its own disk or partition.

Is it worth the time to build a Hackintosh?

Someone eventually asks this question in every Hackintosh or multi-boot related post, so I’m going to get it out of the way. It takes a lot less time to click the order button for a Mac Pro on Apple’s site. But where’s the adventure in that? It should be noted that I already own two Macs and my next two computer will be a MacBook Pro whenever they get around to updating its design (hopefully WWDC 2008) and a Mac Pro.

Is it worth the time to set up and run Linux?

Yes. Linux has a long way to go before it will best Windows or OS X in the desktop market, but it’s a fun operating system to play around on. The usability has grown leaps and bounds in the past few years and it is now extremely user friendly. Should you give it to your Grandma? No, but you shouldn’t give her Vista either.

How long did this take, really?

Building the computer back in September took about half a day from unboxing the parts to removing the old parts from my case to installing the new parts. Installing all three operating systems and getting them to work perfectly took about six hours.

How stable is it?

Rock solid. No kernel panics, no app crashes, no problems whatsoever under OS X. Just like my MacBook and my iMac. There are some issues with program compatibility under Vista, but that’s the fault of software developers and nothing to do with the computer itself. Furthermore, Linux Mint is just as stable as OS X. Don’t believe me? Here’s a screenshot of my uptime from iStat Pro.

Are there any problems you didn’t tell us about?

Sound in Vista is flakey at best–but it was like that long before I began to multi-boot my system. Sometimes Linux Mint takes a long time to boot up, and I have no idea why. It boots though, so that’s all that matters.

I have no sound on my OS X installation. Help.

Prior to writing this guide, I installed OS X on my PC three times. All three times, there was no sound. All you have to do is go to System Preferences. Then to Sound. Choose Line Out for your output type under Sound Effects and Output.

I have no Internet on my OS X installation. Help.

Once again, this was a problem with each Leopard installation I did. Go to System Preferences. Then to Network. Remove every Ethernet option from the list on the left. Hit Apply and Quit System Preferences. Open System Preferences again, click on the “+” sign on the left and add each Ethernet option one by one. Hit Apply, wait for one of them to go Green and say Connected. Close System Preferences.

I got a Chain Booting Error. Help.

Damn. I got that several times too. Honestly, I don’t know how I fixed it. After formatting everything twice, the error magically went away. Here are a few references to check out if you are looking for a way to get rid of it.

Why can’t I access (insert OS name here) drives from (another OS)?

Because some operating systems just don’t recognize the file systems that other operating systems use. There are programs out there that can help you out, though. To have read write access to NTFS (Vista) from OS X, try Paragon NTFS. And check out this guide to access ext2/ext3 (Linux) data from Windows.

Should you build a Hackintosh like this or buy a real Apple computer?

If you’re sitting on the fence about your next computer, build a Hackintosh just to see if OS X is for you. Otherwise, there is no excuse to buy the real thing. I did, Chris Pirillo did, and numerous other computer users did. There’s not a single good reason not to switch to a Mac these days. Even if you’re a gamer, stop wasting your money on computer gaming and buy a console. You can get an Xbox 360, a Wii or a PS 3 for the price of a graphics card.

Special thanks to these fine people. Without them, none of this would have been possible.

• InsanelyMac and the OSx86 Wiki for developing an amazing community around OS X on the PC.
• Kalyway for “porting” OS X.
• Apple for creating an amazing operating system.
• The teams at Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and openSUSE (my 3 favorite distros).
• Microsoft for creating an OS that actually prompted me to install other operating systems on my PC.
• Lifehacker and dailyApps for finally giving me the motivation to try building a Hackintosh with my existing PC.

• Intro
• Part I: The Parts
• Part II: The Build
• Part III: The Installation
• Part IV: The Bootloader
• Part V: FAQ

Technically, if you’re happy pressing F8 whenever you restart your computer, you’re done. But a boot loader works so much better.

Boot into Vista. Load the Kalyway Leopard DVD and browse for the chain0 file. Copy that file into your C: drive. The path should look like this: C:/chain0.

Now head to NeoSmart Technologies and download a copy of EasyBCD. This program will allow you to modify the Vista boot loader to allow easy booting of all three operating systems.

While you still have your browser open, navigate to netkas.org and pick up a copy of PC_EFI V8.0 from the link in comment #55.

Start up EasyBCD and click on Add/Remove Entries and pick Linux from the tabs. Choose GRUB (likely the boot loader on your Linux installation). Rename “NST Linux Loader” to whatever you want.

Now, still under Add/Remove Entries, select NeoGrub. Click Install NeoGrub, followed by Configure. This should take you to a text editor screen. Copy and paste the text below after the commented out area in the menu.lst file.

title Mac OS X
kernel (hd0,0)/NST/boot_v8

NOTE: You can change the title to whatever you want. It’s the title that will be displayed in the boot menu. Also, you may need to change the (hd0,0) section to your specific hard drive settings. The first 0 corresponds to the boot drive while the second 0 corresponds to the partition. If you need help figuring out which drive is which, please leave a comment below.

Save the menu.lst file and close EasyBCD.

Next, unzip your PC_EFI file. Inside of the new folder, look for the boot_v8 file. Copy that file to your C:/NST/ folder. The path of the boot_v8 file should be C:/NST/boot_v8.

Restart your computer, enter the BIOS, and make sure that your Vista disk is the default boot drive.

When the computer finally reboots, you will be presented with a screen that contains three booting options: Vista, Linux, and NeoGrub. If you want to boot into Vista, select “Vista”. For Linux, select “Linux”. And for OS X, select NeoGrub.

Once you select NeoGrub from the boot loader, you will have to select Mac OS X from the following screen. In some cases, OS X may fail to boot from the loader. If that happens, go back to NeoGrub, select Mac OS X again, and when the timer starts counting down, press any key, then type 81. This should resolve your problem.

NOTE: Once again, this step depends on your hardware configuration. For me, 81 was the number to enter. It may be 80, 82, or even 83 for you.

And that’s it. When you’re sure that everything boots normally, you’re all set.

This concludes the step by step portion of the comprehensive guide to building a rock solid triple booting machine. FAQs are next.

• Intro
• Part I: The Parts
• Part II: The Build
• Part III: The Installation
• Part IV: The Bootloader
• Part V: FAQ

Alright, so you’ve got your computer built, and I assume is starts up as it should. You may want to consider running Memtest to make sure your RAM is working properly before you proceed–or you can just jump right in to tweaking the BIOS settings.

Even if you just bought your parts, you need to upgrade your BIOS. If you’re following this guide perfectly and are using the P5W DH Deluxe, you can pick up the latest BIOS at Asus’s site. Follow the instructions in your manual to update the BIOS.

We begin with Vista. It’s the clunkiest of the 3 operating systems, and is more likely to break the other two if installed last, so it’s a good candidate for the first OS, just to get it out of the way.

Leave the BIOS settings at factory default and you shouldn’t have any problems.

Choose the drive you want to install Vista on and follow the instructions on the screen. The Vista installation is pretty straightforward and should be done in around a half hour.

Once Vista boots up properly, you have two options. This is the point where my guide diverges from others you may have seen online. There will be no partitioning of drives here, as this guide is designed for multi-drive use.

If you haven’t already, disable Vista’s UAC.

Take the Vista DVD out of your drive and replace it with the Kalyway Leopard DVD you burned earlier.

Restart your computer and boot to the BIOS. You’ll need to tweak a few settings to get Leopard to work properly.

Use these pictures as a guide to help you determine which BIOS settings to use:

Save and exit. The machine will restart.

Boot to the Leopard DVD. When the blank screen disappears, you should see the OS X installer show up on your screen.

Once you have control over your mouse, head up to the menu bar and select Utilities, then Disk Utility.

Format the drive you want to install Leopard on with the option MAC OS X Journaled Extended.

Quit the Disk Utility and press the Customize button before you continue on to installation.

On the customization menu, make sure the following options are checked (if you are following along with this build as written):

• Vanilla_Kernel ACPIPlatform
• Vanilla_Kernel
• Vanilla_ACPI_fix
• NVINJECT_gfnvidia_desktop
• HDA_ALC882 (p5w_dh)
• Realtek_wifi_1.4.5_UI
• BOOT_efi_guid

Click install and go make yourself a sandwich or something in the meantime. The installation will take about a half hour.

Follow the on screen instructions and you’ll be at the desktop in no time. Once you’ve got 10.5.1 up and running, you’ll need to visit the same site where you found the Kalyway Leopard disc image and download two more files.

• kalyway_hack_10.5.2ComboUpdate
• 10.5.2 kernel vanilla and patched !

Install the ComboUpdate file. Reboot to OS X.

Install the 10.5.2 kernel file. If you chose the Vanilla Kernel earlier during the install, choose Vanilla Kernel when prompted. Reboot to OS X. And you’re done with OS X for now.

The last step of installation is to install Linux.

I’m going to assume you have another drive ready for Linux, so go ahead and pull out the Kalyway disk and pop the Linux CD or DVD into your drive.

Just like with Windows, assuming you’re using a Live CD, just follow the onscreen instructions and you should be fine. If you happen to have a problem, you can consult the Ubuntu Forums for Ubuntu (and related distros) advice or various other help sites set up for other distros.

Once the install is finished, press F8 (for the P5W DH Deluxe) during the BIOS tests to bring up a boot drive selection screen. This is a stopgap because we don’t have a boot loader that can handle each OS in place yet. Select the drive that holds the OS you want to boot to and repeat to check that each is still working fine.

• Intro
• Part I: The Parts
• Part II: The Build
• Part III: The Installation
• Part IV: The Bootloader
• Part V: FAQ

OK, so you’ve got your parts all ready, now it’s time to really get hands on with the project. If you’re nervous, don’t be. Building your own computer is surprisingly easy and by the time you’ve finished, you’ll feel like a professional.

Here are a couple of tips to keep in mind before you begin your build:

• Read through this guide once or twice so that you know what you are getting yourself into. There is nothing worse than starting a project but never finishing it because you feel you don’t have the skills or knowhow to continue.
• Build your computer in a room with plenty of light (natural or artificial) so you can see what you’re doing. Things can get a little dark and cramped when you’re reaching into your case, and you don’t want to make things worse by building in a room with low light.
• If you don’t have a clue what you’re doing, ask for help. I’ve tried to make this guide for mid-level computer users. If you want a very in depth guide, check out the one at PCMech. Also, if you have any problems at all, feel free to comment here, or check out the Anandtech forums.
• Always follow the instructions in your motherboard’s manual if you get stuck somewhere.

Start by finding yourself a nice open space on a table somewhere where you can work without being disturbed and without too much dust floating around. Also, be sure that you ground yourself with a grounding bracelet. They’re cheap and certainly beat the price of replacing your motherboard or processor.

The best place to start a build is to prep your case for your parts. That means removing the panels, taking out the screws and any drive bay covers where you will later insert a drive. Also, stretch the case’s cables so that they can be easily accessed when it’s time to connect them to the motherboard. And take out the default I/O shield at the rear of the case. Replace it with the I/O shield that comes with your motherboard. Remove the motherboard mounting plate from the case and set it aside. Be sure that you clean your case at this point unless it’s brand new.

Many people choose to start with one thing or another, but you should really let your case dictate where you begin. Personally, I start by putting in the drives, followed by the power supply. This works best for smaller cases where you may not have much room to move around once the motherboard is installed.

Unwrap your drives and slide them in place. Screw them in loosely for now, as you may need to reorient them slightly later.

Next, remove the case’s default power supply (if there is one) and replace it with the power supply you bought. You can go ahead and screw it in tightly, chances are you won’t have to remove it any time soon. Unbundle the internal power cables and let them hang for easy access.

Now for the tricky part: mounting the processor and heat sink to the motherboard. There are different ways of doing this, but I usually place the motherboard on its anti-static bag on its box at this point. Place the processor in its socket in the proper orientation and close the socket with the lever. Do not put any unnecessary force on the chip. If the socket does not want to close, do not force it.

Installing the heat sink has always made me nervous. If you’ve never done it before, it fits very tightly to the processor–so tight it is possible to crack the processor’s core if you’re not careful. Instead of explaining it in full detail, I’m going to recommend that you read the manual that came with your processor.

While the motherboard is still easily accessible, install the RAM by sliding each stick into its correct slot. Make sure you have the orientation correct. Also, if you are using a matched set, consult your motherboard’s manual to make sure you install the RAM in the proper slots.

Locate the orientation of the holes in your motherboard and line them up to the proper slots on your motherboard mounting plate. Insert standoffs into the mounting plate where they line up. Place the motherboard on top of the mounting plate. Screw the motherboard to the mounting plate using the motherboard mounting screws that came with your case.

Install the video card by placing it into its proper slot and making sure it snaps into place.

Slide the motherboard mounting plate (and motherboard with everything installed) back into the case. Screw the mounting plate to the case.

Connect the case fans, power supply, drives, and power/reset button cables to your motherboard. Once again, if you are unsure of where everything connects, consult your motherboard’s manual.

Replace the side of your case. Connect your mouse and keyboard. Plug in the power cord and connect your monitor.

Press the power button and cross your fingers. We’ll configure the BIOS in the next post.

• Intro
• Part I: The Parts
• Part II: The Build
• Part III: The Installation
• Part IV: The Bootloader
• Part V: FAQ

The basis of this guide started with a computer that I built in October 2006. If you already have a complete (and working) computer, you can skip this section.

My parts:

• Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
• Asus P5W DH Deluxe Motherboard
• Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400 2GB RAM
• XFX GeForce 7600 GT XXX Edition
• Fortron FSP FX600-GLN Power Supply
• DVD Burner
• 4 Hard Drives of various makes and sizes (3 WD SATA drives and 1 Seagate ATA drive)

A word on the processor.

I chose the E6600 at the time because it was what I needed at a price I was willing to pay. Are there better processors now? Yes. Will they provide the stability you need to run all three operating systems flawlessly? Not all of them. Check the OSx86 Wiki for the complete processor compatibility list. A good rule of thumb, however, is to stick with Intel if you are doing a fresh build.

A word on the motherboard.

Choosing the right motherboard is the most critical part of building a stable Hackintosh. A plain Windows computer can use any motherboard you buy, a Linux computer has some issues here and there with a few motherboards, but OS X is very picky. So choose a motherboard that is guaranteed to work. The P5W DH is a fantastic example, but you should also look at the OSx86 Wiki for a the complete motherboard list if you don’t want the recommended Asus motherboard. Asus is the company that builds many of the current Apple products, so you may want to stick with them when choosing a motherboard.

A word on the RAM.

Buy whatever gets good reviews, goes fast, and carries a cheap price tag. The Corsair sticks were heavily marked down when I bought them, but shop around and you can find some fantastic deals.

A word on the video card.

Like the RAM, the 7600GT was priced right and a great mainstream card. I’m slowly getting out of the computer gaming business, so it was more than enough power for me. However, if you want to really put a ton of video power in your build, go with an 8800GT with 512MB memory.

A word on the power supply.

Don’t cheap out on your power supply. Lots of cases come with crappy power supplies. Such supplies are guaranteed to break. I’ve built numerous PCs for friends and family and every time they’ve tried to save money by using the built in power supply, it has always failed within a year–sometimes taking down other components with it. Seriously, buy a good power supply like those from Fortron, Corsair, and other reputable brands. And before you make any purchase, use a power supply calculator to determine how much juice you need.

A word on the hard drives.

It’s entirely possible to do a triple boot if you only have one or two HDDs, but I tend to *collect* drives. From what I’ve read, partitioning a drive is actually easier when it comes to booting than having multiple drives, but when you’re operating with a single drive there is always that chance that you could lose all of your data.

A word on cost.

This is not the cheapest build you can buy, nor is it the most expensive–but while you may save a buck or two by going with other items, you may lose some compatibility with OS X and/or Linux. I’m mainly putting a build guide here for those who are looking for a computer that can run OS X, Vista and Linux perfectly. There was not a single problem with my build and all three operating systems work as flawlessly as they do on my MacBook and iMac.

A word on Wi-Fi.

The Asus P5W DH Deluxe has a nifty wireless antenna built in if you want to use it with your existing wireless network. Unfortunately, I’ve never had much luck with it. The range is poor, it drops connections like crazy, and it just wasn’t worth the time to set up. You can try if you are interested, but unless you are dying to make use of that wireless router of yours, just plug an ethernet cable into your desktop instead.

• Intro
• Part I: The Parts
• Part II: The Build
• Part III: The Installation
• Part IV: The Bootloader
• Part V: FAQ

So you’ve probably seen several of these guides to help you install OS X 10.5.2 on your computer. However, the goal of this guide is different. Far too many “how-tos” start with an already assembled computer–but not this one. I want to help you get your computer up and running, starting with just a pile of parts lying on a table.

Not only that, but what we’re looking for here is rock solid stability. What good is a computer if it crashes all the time? The target here is to build a triple booting computer that can stand up to weeks of use without requiring a reboot.

Is a tri-boot build practical? Not really. Is it challenging? Somewhat. Is it a good way to kill a weekend where you’ve got nothing else to do? Definitely.

The guide is broken into five parts: the parts, the build, the installation, the boot loader, and frequently asked questions. You can use the table of contents at the bottom of each post to navigate.

Disclaimer: A couple of things to point out. I do not condone software piracy. If you want a real Mac, go to an Apple store and purchase one. Furthermore, buy a legal copy of Vista (or XP). Building a Hackintosh was done only for the purpose of this guide, as I already own several other Macs. In other words–I just wanted to see just how easy it had become and share my experience with all of my readers.

Before you begin, you’ll need to acquire the collection of operating systems that you will be installing.

• Windows Vista (whatever flavor you want)
• Kalyway Leopard 10.5.1 intel SSE2 and SSE3
• Any Linux distro you’ve been wanting to try (I gave Linux Mint a shot, but I also recommend Ubuntu and openSUSE)

Burn the Kalyway Leopard image to a DVD and the Linux distro to a CD (or DVD). Hopefully you actually *bought* Vista. You’re done with the prep work.

And without any further ado, the table of contents:

• Intro
• Part I: The Parts
• Part II: The Build
• Part III: The Installation
• Part IV: The Bootloader
• Part V: FAQ

As far as web browsers are concerned, Safari and Opera were the the two “safest” browsers with only 14 security flaws each. Firefox had the most bugs, with a total of 64 while Internet Explorer had 43 bugs. Now if only Microsoft would concentrate as much effort on making their browser standards compliant. On a positive note, however, Mozilla’s Firefox team was able to release security updates and bug patches much more rapidly than Microsoft. Patches for Firefox were released in as less than a week on average. Patches for IE, on the other hand, were released much later and much less frequently.

The review also went on to evaluate the number of vulnerabilities found in popular anti-virus and other security related programs. Symantec, makers of Norton anti-virus, was one of the leaders, not surprisingly. We’ve all known their products are garbage for some years now. While it may be easy to blame the widespread use of Symantec’s products for the plethora of vulnerabilities, Secunia declared that quite a few vulnerabilities can be attributed to “highly critical flaws” in their code.

So does this study really show that Microsoft’s products are better from a security standpoint? Not at the least. The amount of bugs is only the first part of the problem. What we should really be looking at is the speed at which those bugs are patched–and Microsoft is far beyond the crowd. Letting zero-day exploits last longer than a week, like Microsoft does, is simply ridiculous. You end up with a product that does not have as many bugs, but the ones it does have never get fully patched, making for less secure software. I, for one, would much rather use a program that is patched more frequently–even if it is full of flaws.

Read the full article here.

But all that changed today with the release of KDE 4.0, the newest desktop environment from the guys on the K Desktop Environment team. We finally have a desktop environment for Linux that not only works efficiently, but looks good doing it. I finally have a reason to try out KDE again after forsaking it for several years.

However, despite the major strides made by the KDE team, it is not the be all and end all of Linux desktop environments. While the new style is a step in the right direction from KDE 3.5, it still lacks the finishing touches that you would expect to find on a commercial operating system (Windows XP aside) or application. There are a lot of major design elements here that have been lifted from the likes of OS X and Vista. And that’s not a bad thing, as every designer needs to start with inspiration from something. Hopefully we will see KDE continue to evolve to a point where they start making user interfaces that trump what the commercial designers are doing.

KDE 4 is not just about flashy new looks, though. There are quite a few improvements all around. Default programs have been completely changed or tweaked here and there to make them more useful, more attractive, or more efficient. There are new frameworks everywhere. A new (thank God) default file manager. And new OS X and Windows support for supposedly easier porting of programs from KDE to the two commercial operating systems.

I’ve been using Ubuntu for some time now, and it’s really grown on me. At first, I booted into Vista more often than not, but since the release of 7.10, I’ve noticed a lot of major changes–most of them for the better. Needless to say, Ubuntu has quickly become my OS of choice over Vista (on my desktop). If you’re still on the fence about whether or not you should spend the time and effort to install a Linux operating system on your computer, I’ve compiled a list of the ten most compelling reasons why you should go out there and download that Ubuntu (or Kubuntu, or Xubuntu, or one of the other ‘buntus) Live CD right away.

1. NTFS Read/Write Straight Away: I don’t know a single person who is willing to just scrap their current operating system and go for Ubuntu in one mad, no holds barred, bum rush. Nope, if you’re installing Linux, it’s likely that you’re going to dual boot. And that’s great, because using the Grub boot loader is a snap. But until recently, there was no NTFS read/write support (built in, anyway) to Ubuntu or any of the other various Linux distros out there. You could read, but don’t even think about making any changes to a file on that NTFS partition or you’re going to be severely disappointed. Not anymore. Feel free to access files, listen to music, modify .doc files, whatever the hell you want, on any partition you choose. Without a doubt, of all the new features in Ubuntu 7.10, this was the most appealing. Now if only Windows would support read/write to my Linux partition…

2. GNOME + Compiz = One Beautiful GUI: Every time I look at Ubuntu, I think to myself how great it is that Mark Shuttleworth and the rest of the Ubuntu team decided to go with GNOME over KDE. *Waits for raving KDE fanboys to post mindless and hateful comments.* Yes, GNOME is fantastic with it’s simple style and obvious form follows function design. While the default “Human” theme with its oranges and browns is not exactly my preference (I use Black), the ease of customization is welcome compared to noticeable lack of stock options in XP, Vista, and OS X. Fire up Compiz and everything gets even better. Stylish, fun to use, the GUI is a real joy and the whole Linux community should really be proud of what they’ve created. I do have a couple of problems, however. Ubuntu needs to include Beryl’s Emerald tool and the Compiz control center as defaults. While it’s just a couple of clicks to install them, from an ease of use (read: laziness) standpoint, they need to be right there at the start. Also, some more varied themes for GNOME would be nice, as many of them really start blending together.

3. Package Manager: Whenever I switch back to OS X or Vista, this is the feature I miss the most. I mean, how handy is it to have one window that houses practically every program available for the operating system? Sure, there are third party options for the other operating systems, but the package manager just works so great, I can’t help but love it. You’ve got the massive repository of software, a decent description of each program, and a rating for how many people are using any given application. Well done, and a major point in Linux’s favor.

4. Wine and Thousands of Other Great Open Source Apps: What good is an operating system without software to run on it? Ubuntu comes with plenty of good programs from the start. You’ve got the best browser, a great open source office suite, a fairly decent mail program, and a couple of simplistic media applications. Most people won’t need any more. But if you do, there’s a massive world of open source applications out there for the choosing. And even if you don’t find a program to replace that favorite Windows application of yours, you can always install Wine, the “native” Windows emulator to run many Windows programs on Linux as though you were running them natively on Windows. A great way to wean diehard Windows fans away from the operating system they grew up with.

5. Huge Amount of Customization: I’m sort of a customization nut. When it comes to an operating system, everything has to be just the way I like it. I can get Windows to look and act like I want it to in about an hour, OS X takes about 10 minutes, and Linux takes around a half hour. However, I’m able to customize a hell of a lot more on my Linux install than I could ever hope to without a lot of third party applications on the other popular operating systems. From fonts to window style to the Compiz effects to the Avant Window Navigator to the way I want my folders displayed (and more), there’s practically nothing that I can’t tweak to my liking.

6. No Malware: To be honest, I rarely have a problem with malware on Windows. Maybe it’s because I’m a careful computer user. Maybe it’s because I tend to only use it for occasional gaming these days. But despite my lack of viruses and spyware, I know that plenty of Windows users are inundated with the stuff. Linux has “no” problems with malware to speak of. The reason is twofold: on one hand, it’s because Linux is (almost) entirely open source and on the other hand, it’s likely because Linux has such a small market share. But who cares what the reason is? No malware is no malware, which means I can save space by not installing anti-virus and anti-spyware software and I don’t have to waste CPU cycles running the aforementioned programs.

7. Ease of Use: Ubuntu 7.10 is, by far, the easiest Linux distro I’ve ever used. And I’ve used quite a few in the past six years since I first tried out Mandrake in 2001. Hell, I’d even say that, for the most part, it’s easier to use than Vista which I feel has molded my hands into the three fingered salute in the past year. On Ubuntu, programs open quickly, most everything is perfectly stable, the terminal is slowly starting to disappear (it’s 2007–shouldn’t everything have a GUI by now?), and even my parent’s can use it as well as XP.

8. Hardware Support Has Never Been Better: The blame for poor hardware support still solely rests on the shoulders of the hardware manufacturers, but hardware support in Ubuntu and Linux in general is now on par with that of Mac OS X. And as Linux’s popularity begins to grow, so too will the hardware support. So get to downloading so we can all enjoy better drivers for even our most obscure hardware.

9. It’s Free: Yeah, yeah, you’ve heard it before, but making something free is a great way to get people to download it. Although, it’s not like charging for something has ever stopped anyone from downloading it anyway. The only thing it costs you is an investment in time. A spare Saturday at the most. But what you get back is an operating system that will treat you well–an operating system that I guarantee you will enjoy using more than Windows Vista or XP.

10. Community Support + Tight Release Schedule: What’s most noticeably lacking from the Microsoft experience? Despite the masses of users, there’s no real community spirit. There’s just something about running Linux that makes you feel as though you’re a part of a tight knit team of people who are willing to branch out from the norm and explore their options. It’s a nice feeling. Plenty of people around to help you out, answer your questions, and guide you on the right path to get your computer running as it should. Furthermore, the tight release schedule that the Ubuntu team is faced with is a breath of fresh air to the user. No more waiting around, wondering when the next update or service pack is going to come around to freshen things up. Nope, with Ubuntu, you know exactly when the next big thing is going to come down the tubes and straight into your hard drive–and bug fixes and patches for the OS and third party applications come on an almost daily basis. There is certainly no other community or developer out there who can deliver service like that.

If you liked this, be sure to check out my other post in the Ubuntu 7.10 series: 7 Problems that Keep Ubuntu 7.10 from Going Mainstream

- Eric Norton