Need a Primer for Ubuntu

[Chanchao]

> THE main question is, WHERE do I start.

No, the main question is "WHY" would you start. :) The 'where' matters
less, and in any case Ubuntu is a very obvious and good place to
start. Don't approach this as something that requires major study to
do it right; like how much study did you do before getting your
Amiga.. It looked and sounded good and you could afford it.. that was
about it right? As for running into trouble, cross your bridges as you
encounter them. There's a wealth of information and helpful people out
there.

You of course already indicated the 'why' in your post, it's
mostly a feeling of not feeling 'at home' or missing the excitement
that you had in your Amiga days.

So what we have here is the computing equivalent of a mid-life crisis.
:)  Some people go "my Toyota doesn't give me the same excitement
anymore" and go buy a loud motorbike. :)  Or worse. :)

Price of software is a consideration, but specific software in any
(non-IT) industry, like CAD, or high-end video, finance, will ALWAYS
be expensive. Face it, the OS is cheap! It's mostly delivered with a
new PC, and adds about 100 US$ to the cost of such a PC... 100 US$..
you don't have to work that long to make that money back..

There are other issues with windows of course,
security/viruses/adware/malware being a major one. But face it, for
the foreseeable future the best CAD, video, high-end-'anything'
software will run on Windows.

I mostly use Ubuntu at home, though. For anything internet-related,
and some word processing. For that type of use, Linux is very mature
now, and Ubuntu must have the flattest learning curve of any Linux
flavor out there. In the end the differences between distributions
aren't THAT big, but 'user friendlyness and overal convenience' seems
THE highest priority of Ubuntu.  But then this is the Ubuntu forum, so
you'd expect that answer here.

So by all means have a go, to get the excitement back in your
computing life :), but chances are you'll keep your professional CAD
stuff on a Windows box this decade. The OS isn't that big a deal, it
runs your CAD software, that's about it. Ride your Toyota to work, it
really makes more sense, then get out the Harley in your own time for
some fun, personal growth and fulfillment. :)

Cheers,
Chanchao