With Ubuntu it seems that Linux is getting closer to be a viable replacement for Windows. I am several days into my experiment of running Ubuntu as my operating system on my laptop. So far it is going fairly well, but I have hit the following problems:

  1. I cannot get the Evolution connection to my companies Exchange server to work correctly. For mail this is not a problem, because I can use an IMAP connection, but I really need to be able to connect to the Exchange calendar.
  2. Ubuntu does not deal with monitors well. It defaulted to a fairly low resolution and I had to do some arcane command-line magic and answer many questions about my LCD screen capabilities that I did not have readily to hand. Not very friendly for a non-technical user. Also it appears that if I want to be able to run with a second monitor attached to my laptop I have to do some pretty complex config file hacking. It sure would be nice if Linux had something as convenient as Windows display properties configuration GUI.
  3. The usual VPN solution for my company only works on Windows. I will have to jump through some hoops to be able to work from home.

So I am glad I configured my laptop for dual boot. That way I can fire up Windows when I need it.

One nice feature I found is that I can hibernate both WIndows and Linux, so that when I reboot to switch I am switching into a saved state of the other operating system. However I did find some problem getting the wireless connection to work on Linux after waking up.