I have a strange love/hate relationship with Linux. I think the idea of an open source operating system is great, and I love how so many people are contributing to all these projects that help Linux grow. However, the idea and reality of using Linux as a day-to-day OS, for me, are in conflict. Since this is the last week of me being actively programming before my digital exodus in February, I decided that I might as well try out the latest version of Ubuntu and see how productive I would be. It was time to format my hard drive anyway so I had objections to backing everything up, downloading an Ubuntu 10.10 LiveCD, burning it and loading it up. I encountered problems as soon as GNOME finished loading in LiveCD mode. I could not connect to my home's wireless network. Out of all of the problems I encounter when I try to switch to Linux every six months or so, getting WiFi to work properly is the one I seem to encounter the most. This time, I was simply not able to connect to the networks that the Network Manager found. I tried with both security on and off yet the result was the same. However, this time I managed to partly solve this issue with a little help from Google and Ubuntu's messageboard. I was able to connect to the network but I was stuck with Wireless-G speeds. Also, I was being disconnected from the network for a minute every 15 minutes or so. Unfortunately, I was not able to find a solution to this. Another problem I encountered was intense screen tearing when watching video files at full-screen. This was easily fixed by turning on hardware v-sync in the ATI Control Panel. However, full-screen Flash video was not fixed by this, and I continued to experience both ticky playback and screen tearing with Flash videos. I am not trying to bash Linux at all with this post; I am just sharing my own experiences with the OS. I realize that a lot of how well a Linux experience can go is based on the hardware you have and whether good drivers are written for it. I find that with my current hardware configuration, I do not have the best results. I hope that when I build my new computer in a month or so, my experiences are more positive. Until then, I shall continue to run Linux as a virtual machine.