Ubuntu UNR

As some of you may remember, I became enamored of Ubuntu, the awesome Linux operating system, a few years ago. My infatuation never really faded - I love playing around with Linux and totally love Ubuntu.

When I got my Acer netbook a few months ago, one of the first things I did was make it dual-bootable with Ubuntu (and the originally installed OS - Windows 7 Starter in Japanese). Happy was I to discover that Ubuntu had released, though I had not earlier noticed, a version optimized specifically for netbooks. It's called Ubuntu Netbook Remix, or UNR.

The menu and desktop environment look a little different to the main Ubuntu release, but overall, I have relly been enjoying surfing around in my UNR.

[caption id="attachment_1528" align="alignnone" width="430" caption="UNR Desktop Favorites menu"][/caption]

Above you will notice that I've got Picasa and Google Chrome installed. These are proprietary programs and do not come pre-packaged - I had to install these myself. Another Linux distro available and optimized for netbooks is called EasyPeasy. EasyPeasy looks a lot like my above UNR screenshot because it is based on Ubuntu, but includes some popular applications, like Picasa, Skype and Flash, right out of the box. However, whether including proprietary software (something Ubuntu and most other Linux distros do not do) is a good thing is debatable.