I ran upon this comparison made by Rupert Goodwins:
I’ve used Windows since 1.0. I’ve lived through the bad times of Windows/386 and ME, and the good times of NT 3.51 and 2K. I know XP if not backwards, then with a degree of familiarity that only middle-aged co-dependents can afford each other…. Then how come I’m so much more at home with Ubuntu than Vista? It boils down to one abiding impression: Ubuntu goes out of its way to get out of your way, even if it doesn’t succeed all the time. Vista goes out of its way to be Vista and enforce the Vista way. You must conform regardless of the implications.
You can read this article on ZDNet. I have abandoned Mandriva. I was getting error messages and not finding answers. And because Gutsy Gibbon has been released. I have installed the new version of Ubuntu on two boxes with absolutely no difficulty. I still recommend anyone installing Ubuntu immediately get a copy of Automatix. Automatix simplifies the loading of codecs and browser plugins. Be sure to select the version of Automatix that matches your version of Linux. My impressions of Gutsy so far: 1. It’s faster than Fiesty and requires less memory. This should be specially attractive on older boxes. 2. The default GUI is more “Vista like” — just eye candy to me; some will see this as a plus. 3. The package manager is more cryptic, but there may be a way to change that. I’m investigating. 4. Next steps: upgrade and printer testing.
