I am using Windows for most of my daily work, currently Windows Vista and I a quite happy with it. Although currently I am mainly developing Java (web) applications which could be done on Mac OS or Linux too there are some reasons for that. The biggest one is that I using (loving) BlackBerry devices and the BlackBerry software is only available for Windows.

For my servers I am using Debian and Ubuntu in their current releases because I really like the package management system and how easy it is to install and update additional software. I periodically try the newest “desktop versions” of various Linux distributions and so I did with Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) when the second Beta version came out.

I installed it on my Dell Precision M4300 and not just inside a virtual machine because I was seriously thinking about using it as my primary system.

After the installation finished I was really impressed about the progress Ubuntu has made since the last release 8.10. Every piece of hardware in my notebook was identified correctly and ready to use. The last time I tried Ubuntu I had problems connecting to my WPA secured wireless lan – this time I just had to enter the key and I was online. The internal bluetooth module was ready to use and it was easy to connect my Microsoft Bluetooth mouse. So far so good.

The first problems started when I tried to activate the restricted drivers for nvidia to get all the UI candy. On the display of the notebook everything worked fine but when I docked it and closed the lif nothing was displayed on the external screen. I had to remove the D-Dock from the monitor stand to open the lid. Then I was able to configure both monitors by using the nvidia settings tool. After that I could see something on the external monitor even when I closed the lid again. Other people had this problem too of course.

The D-Dock docking station emerged as one of the main problems for my Ubuntu setup. While the sound worked fine when undocked I was not able to hear anything when the notebook was docked. I found this forum entry discussing that problem and I was able to solve it by activating the IEC958 flag as described there.

I also experienced problems where I expected them before I tried it with the new Ubuntu version: standby and hibernate. I was able to set by Notebook to Standby and to wake it up again most of the time but it did not resume after hibernation.

All in all I have to say that I quite liked Ubuntu and I could image to use it as my main system. For some of my work I would still have to use a Windows in a virtual machine – like working on my BlackBerry applications.