My old laptop has been showing its age recently (or so I thought). Every thing I tried to do in Windows XP seemed to take forever – especially once I started to use multiple applications. As a result, I’ve not used it for a while.

I recently wiped the whole thing by using the factory restore DVDs that come with the laptop but that installed so much Sony bloatware that it didn’t really feel any faster at all. Just a whole lot emptier! ^^

I’ve been thinking of trying to use Linux for a while but the one thing that’s put me off is the fact that there are some Windows applications that I still have a need for (and a couple of games). It was a few months back when my interest was re-kindled by Haz’s laptop running Linux. He showed me that he’d got some windows applications running natively on the laptop by using Wine and it actually seemed to work!

So… I’ve downloaded the latest distro of Kubuntu (I prefer the KDE environment) and I’ve installed it on my laptop. I even destroyed the hidden restore partition on the HDD to make more space. I’ve downloaded packages useful to me (networking just works without any hassle at all) and I’ve installed Wine.

The result is amazing – it feels like I have a new laptop again. The speed is amazing, I can switch between various running applications with ease and I LOVE the 3D task selection view. I’ve fallen in love with my old laptop again because it works as it’s supposed to.

Now I’m just trying to install the Windows applications that I need. I installed Internet Explorer 6 earlier and that runs without any problems at all. Fun, fun, fun!