I have been using Debian Linux on my HP pavilion laptop. The laptop originally came with XP.

The latest release of Debian Linux does not make me miss my XP though it still has ways to catch up to Mac OS. So far, I have been really impressed with the development of the Linux OS. I have seen many changes in latest release ‘etch.’ The ‘etch’ release has far better features than the previous versions. It has improved wireless networking issues along with browser compatibility issues.

For me, key functions are wireless internet, browser, and email. I have not come across a single website that does not work with Iceape release of Firefox. All those applications works really well in the stable release of Debian.

I have not played much with movie players. The DVD players do not play quite well but also have not spent time to figure out how to make it play either. The online videos plays well such as videos from youtube.

Only function that I wish I had is the Sleep mode in the OS. I have to power down the machine if I do not want the machine to be plugged all the time. Also, the OS consumes a lot of power. Though my batter is not new but the machine sucks out the batter in less than half hour.

On the word processing area, I have been using Open Office and pretty impressed with it. The Open Office has all the features that I need to do my word processing, presentation and even drawing. One of the key feature that I use often is generating PDF file. The Open Office comes with a feature that allows documents, presentations to be exported to the PDF format. This is really convenient features as I can share the documents as PDF.

I really like the Apt-get features of Debian. This feature allows me to get updates automatically and also install all those available software. I use synaptic package manager to search and install a package (software), I use apt-get to do the update and upgrade.

This is a great product.