After deliberating for the better part of 3 years I decided to take the plunge and moved Shef's HP nx9040 laptop , from it's now terribly slowed down install of Win XP, to Ubuntu. This went down three weeks ago.

Shef's laptop use covers her scientific writing work, music and DVD playback, IM (both chat and Video) and some basic games.

Available at hand was a CD of Ubuntu 7.04. Popped in the CD and the deed was done in a few minutes. Add ons to make the transition smoother included various Firefox plugins, Mplayer and it's accomplices, Pybliographer,  Acrobat reader and a few more odds and ends.

The laptop has had a dodgy on board microphone right from it's Windows days. It simply never worked...and since the laptop was gifted to me, sans warranty, I was in no position to crib at anyone to get it fixed. So, we have used a MVOX mv100 USB speaker/mic combo as a substitute.

Cut back to the nx9040 running Ubuntu. A few days after the big move in comes a demand for Skype to be loaded on the machine. Ubuntu 7.04 does not like the MVOX mv100, and the on board microphone does not work. At this point I am not even contemplating the lack of webcam support. Fine mess I've landed in !

Much cursing ensues at both me and Ubuntu and finally the demand to roll back to Win XP. Ugh !

Two days later Ubuntu 8.04 is released and I scurry to get the latest version in hope of finding a solution to the laptop (and my domestic) problems. Everything installs cleanly in a few minutes and heart beating I plug in the MVOX and webcam...and Viola! it works.

Phew..saved ! Many thanks to the folks at Ubuntu.

Being a long time Redhat user, I just wish Fedora would become as smooth to use.

PS : I tried all of the above on a fully updated Fedora 8 install before opting for Ubuntu...no dice.