As the editor of this site, you might think that I have the latest computer equipment and bleeding edge office software. You'd be wrong. I realised long ago that any time-saving features offered by a new operating system and software would be completely negated by the extra time required to get everything working properly and learn to use it.

That's not the case for everyone, of course, but I have a lot of weird and wonderful scripts and applications, including DOS tools, that simply don't work properly under the latest versions of Windows. So my stable system is based on Windows 98 SE. It does what I want it to (just about) and nothing more.

Even so, the time is coming when I'm going to have to upgrade. At the moment it's still possible to have the latest versions of core applications (e.g. Web browsers) running on this ageing platform, but that won't be the case for much longer. I don't relish the idea of Windows XP because I don't like operating systems that are over-complicated with too many built-in applications. Again, though, that's probably just me.

So, to Linux. It's been a few years since I last used it, but our review of Mandrake's new package tempted me, so I decided to get hold of a copy and give it a try.

It took a couple of hours to install it, mainly because my multiple-OS PC confused the LiLo boot loader. But it wasn't too much hassle. I had a bit of a play to find out what was what, then wiped the whole lot and reinstalled it with different options from the advanced setup menu.

Having used it for a few weeks now - although not yet as a primary system - I have a few comments that might be useful to you if you're considering jumping ship from Windows.

First the negatives. Linux is not bug-free. I had some problems with the KDE desktop, problems that have been documented by other users. I switched to Gnome, which is less pretty but seems more stable. It is possible to break Linux and crash the OS. I did this by SU'ing and deleting the current user account. Not clever, but it proves a minor point. Printer support is not perfect, particularly with Canon printers - I still don't have a driver for my Pixma iP8500. Even though the Mandrake package is a good one, it's not as helpful as Windows. When things go wrong you really need to search the Web for a solution. That said, the solution is usually out there.

Now the positives. Linux does seem to be very stable. Apart from that user-induced crash, it's been solid and reliable since installation. It has lots of fantastic free software, including command-line tools that really suit a nerd like me. The Norton Commander clone, Midnight Commander, is a useful example. And you can run many Windows applications natively, using WINE, although I'm not completely convinced of the purity of this approach.

I'm not yet ready to move all my data and applications to Linux and use it every day, but it will be my next operating system. I don't have anything against Windows XP, but it's not for me. Ultimately, though, this is a matter of personal philosophy, and Linux is unlikely to suit everyone unless it becomes as user-friendly and simple to install as Windows. But to do that it'll also have to become bloated and feature-packed, at which point it'll lose its appeal to people like me.