When you think that the Windows Flip 3D effect in Windows Vista is the coolest desktop eye candy, wait till you see the amazing visual effects available on Ubuntu 8.04 with 3D effects powered by Compiz Fusion.
If you have never seen the breath-taking 3D effects available on Ubuntu 8.04, please watch the following YouTube clip, and I’m sure you will be immediately amazed with jaw-dropping reaction 
How to Enable Advanced 3D Effects on Ubuntu 8.04?
- Ubuntu Dedicated Weblog - Compiz Config Setting Manager
- Forlong’s Blog - How to set up Compiz Fusion
My Initial Experience with Ubuntu 8.04
I’ve recently formatted my home PC, made way for Ubuntu, and installed dual-boot with Windows XP Professional and Ubuntu 8.04. This time, I’ve made the Ubuntu 8.04 as the primary default boot, leaving Windows a secondary choice 
FYI, my home PC is relatively old comparing to today’s de-facto standards. It’s running on Intel Prescott P4 2.0GHz processor with 512MB RAM and an on-board graphic card. This specification is a BIG NO to the resource-hungry Windows Vista.
Firstly, with Ubuntu installation CD, you can even boot and run the operating system from CD without installation. So, you can try out its compatibility with your computer and find reasons to convince yourself, before you commit to install it.
I’ve given my Ubuntu a 12GB partition, with 900MB swap area. It takes a set of very simple steps to install Ubuntu 8.04 with complete graphical interface. Yes, the installation is easy; it asks less questions comparing to Windows XP and Vista, and many configurations are automatically detected. For my case, it even prompts if I would like to import settings from Windows XP.
Ubuntu is Bundled with Can’t-Leave-Without Applications
When you’ve got a fresh installation of Windows, is your PC practically usable?? Obviously no; not until you have installed PDF reader, Microsoft Office, IM client (MSN, YM, Trillion and etc) and 7zip (the file zipping utility in Windows is plain sucks). To me, I need Firefox too, to feel at home while surfing online.
However, the above scenario is not the case for Ubuntu 8.04. Once the installation is done, I started navigating around the menus, and guess what, I don’t know what else I need to install!
It’s installed with OpenOffice.org 2 for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations, Firefox 3 web browser, Tomboy for note-taking, F-Spot for photo management, GIMP for image processing, Pidgin as all-in-one instant messaging client, PDF reader, and effective file zipping utility common in any Linux operating system.
Seriously, besides some web development tools like Java development kit, Eclipse IDE and Tomcat, I don’t think I’m lacking any other to-die-for application for my home computing needs. Oooops, I just told a lie I can’t live without Photoshop haha. Well, no big deal, we can always run Windows program on Linux with Wine HQ. The latest release of Wine contains fixes for Photoshop CS3 compatibility.
Read and Write Windows Files System
Something that impressed me out of expectation, is Ubuntu’s ability to read and write NTFS file system – the default file system for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. Yes, not just reading, but writable as well.
Which means, for any other partition that you currently have in your hard disk, you will be able to read from and write into the files, even if there are created in Windows.
My Do I Install Ubuntu?
About 3 or 4 weeks ago, KC installed Ubuntu 8.04 in his laptop, and kept on deviling around by showing off the cool 3D effects. Many were amazed! Then, Jack itchy hand and installed as well. He passed me a CD, but my CD-ROM could not read it at the 56th percent of installation process. Again, I got another installation CD from Edwin, and finally done 
Actually I prefer to install on my office laptop, but don’t have enough free space to do so hehe.
Windows Vista is Really Outdated
The positive initial experience with Ubuntu 8.04 has really convinced me to say that Windows Vista is outdated. Outdated in terms of its 3D effects, and most importantly, its user experience support. While Windows Vista requires 1.5GB of RAM to deliver decent performance, I could execute Ubuntu 8.04 with 3D effects without problem with only 512MB RAM. That’s a huge difference. More over, the Windows Aero effects are not available on Windows Vista Home Basic.
So, do you think the Flip 3D (shortcut: Windows + tab) in Windows Vista is cool enough??
If not because Microsoft Windows have already captured a huge chunk of end-user desktop market, and that so many applications out there are only available for Windows, I’m sure Ubuntu will make an impact in the end-user computer market.
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Agree, I use Windows for the compatibility and ease of use.
I tried 8.04 too, but didnt install the 3D thing, just want to play around with it.
very powerful and low resource requirement. But we still live in a world who needs Microsoft, in our every single day.