I’m planning a trip to visit my friends for a holiday party. They have a computer which always gets infested so badly with spyware that it takes 10 minutes or more to boot up and is virtually unusable. I’ve reloaded Windows on it twice for them so far, but whatever they’re doing that gets it infected, they can’t seem to stop. So, I’m taking a new tactic.

Although I am a huge Linux fan myself, I hadn’t thought it was really ready for the average person until recently. So, here’s the experiment: install Ubuntu Linux 6.10 on their computer as a dual-boot solution, and see how it goes. My friends are a perfect test case: they know how to use a computer but aren’t programmers or system admins. I think that Linux will work just fine for them, and solve all their spyware and “slow computer” problems.

If you’ve never tried Linux, or haven’t in a while, now is a good time to. I recommend Ubuntu specifically — It’s great for both beginners and experienced Linux users. It has very cool eye-candy (if you computer is new enough), a simple user interface, and a helpful user community. You can find videos of the installation online if you’re worried about what to expect. Also, a big benefit is that you can run Linux withough even installing it, or alternatively, you can install it so that when your computer boots you can choose whether to go into Windows or Linux (which is how I’ll set it up for my friends).

Today, Linux can do just about everything Windows can … the question is whether it can do it simply enough to not cause trouble for the average Windows user. That’s what I’ll find out after this weekend. :)