Is Linux ready for the desktop? Early in 2000, LinuxDevices.com founder Rick Lehrbaum vowed to leave Windows behind — not just in the embedded market, but with respect to his own desktop computer. But he didn't quite realize what he was getting himself into. In this essay, we join Lehrbaum on his quest to configure a Linux-based system for use during working hours that would perform all his required… tasks, that would let him share “popular” formats of files and data with business associates, and that wouldn't give him headaches. Does he arrive at his goal? Lehrbaum writes . . .

“I guess there's always a risk when you go on vacation that things will somehow be different when you return. This one was no exception. Upon arriving home from a week of recreation in the Pacific Northwest, I glanced at my trusty old desktop system and decided this would be the day. Today, May 1, 2001, I would finally pull the plug on Windows and switch my daytime activities to Linux.”

“Not that I hadn't been wanting to do just that for the longest time. Since quitting my previous job and starting the LinuxDevices.com embedded Linux portal website, I maintained high hopes for leaving Windows in the dust some day. That now seems an eternity ago — at least in Internet time . . .”

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