Ubuntu: Ubuntu Pocket Guide Available as a Free Download.
If you have thought about Ubuntu, and Linux in general, as a free operating system alternative for your practice, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that operating systems are like tires. They "ain't pretty", and they only have to do one thing, run software applications within a computer. The bad news is that Ubuntu isn't for the faint of heart. I have loaded it, used it, and it is great for web browsing and email, and other web-based stuff. However, there are too many long-standing legal specific applications that I can't live without, for which there aren't Linux variants. Perhaps the move to SaaS legal applications will change this in the future, but we aren't there yet. The biggest problem, however, is that Ubuntu NEEDS a pocket guide in the first place. I can't tell you how many hours I have wasted trying to program the config file that tells Ubuntu how to send an image to an LCD monitor. OSes need to be easy to configure, and not require a pocket guide to navigate the code. I know that most of you don't want to learn how to configure an OS. You just want to turn the computer on, and do your work. I love Ubuntu because it is free, open source, and works. However, it will not be a mainstream OS until installing it doesn't require a geek who knows how to burn an ISO file to a DVD burner, and who wants to spend a lot of time configuring the external monitor, and finding printer drivers that work.