First of all, let me make it clear: I am an ASP.NET web developer, so that means I use Microsoft Windows at work. But at home, I use Ubuntu because I want to learn it. So far, I like both OS and don’t have bias towards any of them.

What I lost:

1. When I use Windows, part of my sense of accomplishment comes from updating my anti-virus and anti-spyware database files and defrag my system regularly, however, after using Ubuntu, there is no anti-virus or anti-spyware needed and no defragmentation is needed either, so I lost that sense of accomplishment.

2. Lots of nice Windows software don’t have Linux version, so I either have to find alternatives or have to give up on them in Linux. For example, FastStone Image Viewer is a small, powerful, and lightening fast photo management software, but it only runs in Windows. However, I haven’t found a good photo management software in Ubuntu yet and it seems that I am not alone with this issue. Another one is K9 Web Protection from BlueCoat which is a free parent control application running on Windows OS only, but in Linux, there is so far no competitive parent control application like K9 yet. I tried DansGuardian on Ubuntu and got frustrated after using it for a while because it kept blocking my own site as a P-O-R-N site when I tried to search my own site. (Update: thanks to Wine, I successfully installed FastStone Image Viewer on Ubuntu.)

3. Hardware support in Linux/Ubuntu is not as good as in Windows yet. But I think it will get better when more people use Linux/Ubuntu and more hardware vendor support Linux drivers.

What I gained:

1. More knowledge.

2. Less system crashes.

3. No worry about virus and spyware when surfing the Internet.

4. No need to spend money on purchasing software.

5. Add more after I use Ubuntu more.