There are lots of things I love about Linux, the free and open operating system for computers,

One of them is that mostly software is designed to just work for the user- no marketing gimmicks or hurdles designed to "protect" manufacturers. For example I was thinking this morning how ridiculously easy it is to install USB devices in Linux. Usually you just plug them in and off you go. A couple of years ago I got a 3G mobile broadband connection. The modem arrived, I plugged it in and then entered my account details and was connected in a few minutes. A month later, my son needed to borrow the device to use on his Windows laptop. He had to go hunting for drivers and all sorts of things and it took over an hour to install it.

Another thing I love is that you can configure things to suit your needs. I use Ubuntu and recently upgraded to their latest release- 12.10. The default Unity desktop is pretty and has lots of bells and whistles, but I noticed that my little lap top was getting slower and even my desktop machine sometimes had noticeable delays. Last night I installed the much lighter xfce desktop which has most of the same features but is not as pretty. This morning I am suing my laptop and it's faster than ever before.

Linux is definitely a wonderful computer environment. You don't have to be a nerd to use it, and it is miles ahead of Windows. Check it out at http://www.ubuntu.com