As many of our readers are aware, we support Linux here at Way of the Geek. You may not know that MythBuster Jamie Hyneman supports it as well. In this article on Popular Mechanics Jamie Hyneman, from the television show MythBusters, advocates Linux as an alternative to Windows Vista. He mentions Ubuntu by name,which is being used to bring you this very article.

The problem with Windows, he says, is that it suffers from “feature bloat”. That being installing the OS with all the bells and whistles as standard then leaves you to figure out on your own how to get rid of all the things you don’t need. He advocates installing the bare minimum and letting the end-user install all the features they want on their own.

While Ubuntu comes with a few features you may not need there are other “flavors” that can be installed as a bare bones system. Distributions like Gentoo, Debian, Vidalinux, Damn Small Linux, and many others can all be installed without a lot of features, letting you install the ones you want later as you see fit. So there are definitely more than enough options for you to choose from.

With Vista requiring a complete rebuild of most systems, Linux might just be the alternative for you. I’ve got it running on my 6-year-old laptop and it still runs like a dream. You can still get all the spiffy window extras that Vista gives you (it’s called Compiz and Beryl folks, look it up). The best part is that it’s free, as in beer and speech.

If you liked that, try...

1. Microsoft Vista Launches Today, Just Don’t Try to Upgrade
2. Install Vista Upgrade as Full Version?
3. Watsa Matta with Ubuntu?
4. Back From the Dead
5. Is Vista A No-Go For IT?

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