I love Ubuntu Desktop, worked on Ubuntu servers before. I used to run a VPS but got to pricey. Now I just have a simple LAMP server running a Christian site (wordpress).
I love open source but right now I"m stuck on Windows.
I"m a little Anti-Macintosh because inside the kernal they call in Darwin (pssh).
If I had a perfect setup, it would be a laptop with Ubuntu on a Lenovo laptop, with mic and webcam. That's it. yup. I also work in IT too. Nice to meet you guys.
Not sure why you are stuck on windows, but is that because it's the only computer you have and need windows for some reason? I like to install linux (Ubuntu is good, so is Mint) on older computers. The Linux computer I had lately the video card died (so I'm not presently running Linux), and I have this chromebook (linux-like) which I may install Linux on since it's support will expire this June. Also my wife has a new Lenovo with Windows 10 that is a disaster. It takes longer to boot and bring up a browser window than it takes grandpa with a cane to walk across a large town. That's (IMO) a combination of the bad hardware of Lenovo plus Microsoft has multiple issues and I won't even allow it in this household for my own use for the last ten years. But she had to get that supposedly for her medical work and now she's sorry and said she should have listened to me not to get a Microsoft. Anyhoo, the moral of that story is I'd like to install Linux on that machine since she's basically through with it. It would be interesting to compare how much faster Linux is even if there is some hardware slowing.
As for Macintosh (aka just Macs, we must both be old lol) Apple has an expensive operating system, but a good one... at least it was. It is Unix-like, the most secure operating system but in recent years I think they dropped the ball some, but still light years away from the virus and worm issues that Microsoft has but Apple does not have, nor does Linux, Chrome OS nor Android have any virus and worms type malware. At this juncture, to stay secure, if you stay away from the Microsoft (as I don't really promote anything specific otherwise despite being called a Linux fanboy already) and use anything else you should be good there as long as you keep up on the updates. I can see where you are coming from , though, with Apple's expense. In the olden days when it was very secure and a well oiled machine, it was worth it. Now they have a bit more competition (called Google lol) if they are going a bit downhill. My personal feelings is that Steve Jobs would not tolerate half of what goes on today with that company. One has to be a special kind of stupid to mess up a UNIX-like operating system so that it's less secure.
