When I joined Optaros I decided to live in Linux full-time. Previously I had several Linux VMware images I would just start up whenever I needed to work in Linux, but I really wanted to go whole-hog, so when I got my laptop I installed Ubuntu dual-booted with Windows.

It was easier to live in Linux full-time than I thought it would be. The only time I needed to go back to Windows was when I was collaboratively working on documents with Windows users. Although OpenOffice.org can read and write Office documents, and OpenOffice has all of the features I typically use, back-and-forth authoring between the two was painful, particularly when the Microsoft Office authors would use heavy formatting and styles. So, if I couldn’t get the document to look the same across suites, I’d throw up my hands and boot to Windows.

My Ubuntu install had a couple of annoyances. First, no matter what I tried, I could not get wireless to work. Less importantly, I couldn’t successfully recover from a hibernate.

Last week I decided to upgrade Ubuntu to the latest distribution, Dapper Drake. I settled in for what I figured would be a day-long slug-fest. It turned out to be much easier than I had expected–the Update Manager handled everything. The beauty of the upgrade, beyond being up-to-date on security and software patches, is that the upgrade fixed my wireless and hibernate problems.

So, long story short, my “Live in Linux” streak is now three months strong and more productive than ever.