Ubuntu 6.10 with NoMachine NX Server

I wasted a few hours trying to install FreeNX on my Ubuntu box yesterday, I was feeling a bit under the weather so it was not as though I was wasting time anyway.

I never could get it to work properly, so I gave up and went commercial, so to speak, and got NoMachine’s NX Server to work in about 1 hour (but it did help that I had spent so much tile trying to get FreeNX to speak SSH, and I knew what the options meant). So long VNC, NX *rocks* (except that it crashes my Gnome login screen?).

There is a larger point at work here: I am still a Microsoft fan and I think that, as a firm, they create great products. The thing is, I never had as much fun with my PCs (DOS, Win3.1, ME, etc.) as I have had with Linux/Ubuntu. I can’t really figure out why, but Linux/Ubuntu reminds me of the way I felt the first time I used a Mac, back in 1988: the sense of power, the sense that borders had been crossed in terms of what was possible, etc. Linux puts you in the driver’s position, something that Windows, because it has to reach to so many million users probably can’t do anymore, at least not commercially.

I may just skip Vista and move all of my PCs to Ubuntu, especially if Feisty improves on Edgy. What does it mean for MSFT if guys like me (business users) start switching?