Gutsy Gibbon

my sata hard drive just crashed and i got it replaced...
since i now had a clean slate.. i thought id finally install linux and play around a bit..

and so finally i installed ubuntu 7.10 gutsy gibbon release

its not the latest in the ubuntu release but its a pretty stable one..so i thought i'd install it.
so here i am , working on the ubuntu environment for the first time and i must say its been a nice ride till now..
ubuntu has a lot of cool features and also is one of the most userfriendly linux distributions i have worked on , the synaptic package manager is one of the best things ive seen in an OS..
also ubuntu dsl dialer has fixed my problem of having to click on connect to the internet everytime i boot...in ubuntu i just had to configure my dsl settings once and it asked me whther i would like to trigger the connection everytime i booted , and i gladly said yes :D

And mind you i have also installed windows vista ultimate on a parallel drive , but im so impressed with the speed and flexibility of ubuntu , im mostly using ubuntu only.
also the boot times of both the OSes r so different , ubuntu is so much faster.
Vista ultimate takes 45-50 seconds to boot while ubuntu takes just 10-15 seconds.
impressive eh ? yes indeed , but what is more stunning is the shut down time , vista takes me more than a minute sometimes , and around avg 30 seconds to shut down , while ubuntu takes me just 5-7 seconds.

any of u guys out there still contemplating about using a linux distribution , ubuntu is definetly worth a shot..

cheers