I spent a couple more hours using and refining my Ubuntu 11.04 desktop workstation. I installed the Chrome browser as my default browser and the Moonlight player (provides Silverlight in Linux). Watching a few minutes of House on Hulu and playing Pandora radio worked well. One drawback in Moonlight on Chrome is the limited nature of video support. For example, Netflix will not run under Chrome in Ubuntu even though it runs well under Chrome in Windows 7 or XP. TweetDeck is up and running well and tweeting to Twitter. In fact, I created this post using the WordPress client in Chrome.
As for email, I’m still evaluating the gmail.com web client, Evolution email client that comes with Ubuntu, and KMail for Ubuntu tells me I have more research required. Currently, I’m leaning toward using the Gmail web client in Ubuntu. The Evolution client looks convenient with a counter and link in the menu bar. However, the IMAP connection chokes and never finishes retrieving or shows any entries in the inbox. KMail worked fine but is not as well-integrated into the Ubuntu environment. Microsoft Office and Outlook 2003 did install under Wine. However Office 2010 fails to load. I may try loading Office and Outlook 2007 later.
Although I’m not ready to give up Windows completely, Ubuntu has come a long way in the last few years. I do prefer it’s speed and simplicity compared to Windows. I have not tried any of the Web Development tools yet and plan another post once I have time to try out a few.
Let me know your own thoughts, questions, or suggestions with Ubuntu.
Eric
Eric's Random Thoughts 