Free Note Book Operating Systems - Are They Any Good?

I know a few people that have down loaded them and are seriously looking at them. Whether they are any good the juries out on that. Big draw why pay Microsoft your hard earned dollars if you can get something for free that works as just as well.

Why are they free, how do you get the computer industry to use it if Microsoft got it all tied up. You offer it to the end user for free.

I have been using ubuntu for the last three years, and I have enjoyed it. One problem,each release has a unique problem, like 10.4 the keyboard does not work. The free software has worked without problems. 9.10 the dvd cd player would not work, until about three months later it was fixed. The operating system has not crashed or blue screened at all. It works like a champ. Once you get a working system stay with it for it's long term support. Upgrade on another system then migrate the changes to other machines. Ubuntu does not have virus problems, and each release does not need faster hardware to work

is the ubuntu can be used here in the philippines?

You can use Ubuntu anywhere.

I am not familiar with the netbook version of Ubuntu, but have been using Ubuntu on a variety of systems from desktops to laptops for a number of years. I have a tendency not to use the latest release- I currently use 9.10 (along with 9.04 and 8.04) on different machines with considerably less problems than I had back in the days when I still used Windows. My experience has been than hardware (sound cards, printers, graphics cards) just work out of the box with Ubuntu, whereas with Windows one generally has to chase down the appropriate drivers to match the OS version.

The question I would have about the netbook version would be the age of the hardware, and what sort of peripheral devices you want to support. You can usually get some pretty good answers about what does and does not work on the forums at www.ubuntu.com.

I have found that even newer versions of Ubuntu work well on ancient equipment that can not run newer commercial operating systems. Since one of my interests is maintaining legacy equipment, Ubuntu has proven very valuable to me.

The operating systems are free because that is the philosophy behind the "Open Source" software movement- a grass-roots movement to regain control of your personal computer. There are companies out there that will package commercial support for the free software, which is how they make money (Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, makes their money this way, but there is no obligation to subscribe to their support contracts to use the software. And there is a very diverse support community out there that provides answers and support for free). The idea is that users share their experience, and participate in the further development of the software. The open community support for problem resolution is much, much more responsive and helpful than any commercial "help line" I have ever had the occasion to use. It works. And there is no "catch".

There is one small catch - all the excessive graphics on the interface you get with Windows is eliminated, so the system is much leaner. From what I gather, a whole Gb of RAM is used just to run the desktop gizmos on 7.