I plan on installing Ubuntu on a spare PC in the next week. This will be the first time working with Linux.
Cool. I think you’ll like it.
Grok is a good place to get your Ubuntu install/config questions answered.
I have an acer laptop that had been running Win7 when the HD crapped out Rather than put it in a landfill, I installed an SSD and put Ubuntu on it. It’s slippery fast, and does everything I want.
My sole complaint isn’t really a Linux problem; the LibreOffice worksheet app is nowhere near as quick as Excel inserting rows, moving them around... and if I don’t hit “Save” often enough, it hangs up long enough in the autosave cycle that it triggers the O/S to throw up a window warning me that the app might be frozen, and do I want to Exit or Wait to see if it returns to life.
Again, that’s not a Linux problem, and I may switch over to Apache OpenOffice to resolve the issue.
So, maybe a heads-up as you go installing auxiliary applications to check the Reviews or — better yet — read the grumblings of users out in the wild.
In all, though, I’ve been happy with Linux. I used Linux to resurrect an XP64-era HP laptop that’s so old it still has the “Compaq” marque on it. The only issue I had with that install was that earlier Ubuntu versions had more difficulty playing nicely with NVIDIA graphics subsystems. I had a few adventures there, but that’s in the past, now, so you should have fairly smooth sailing getting up and running.