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In general, a safe operating system is one that runs in a nonadministrator mode. Like Windows Vista's controversial User Account Control, a security feature that freezes the desktop screen and asks for a password in order to access administrator-protected features, Ubuntu also darkens the screen during its security prompts, calling your attention to the admin password request prompt. Unlike Windows Vista UAC, Ubuntu asks for an administrator password only once, allowing you to tweak several administration features without additional prompts. Mac OS X also prompts for administrator access.
Like the upcoming Leopard version of Mac OS X, Ubuntu lets you create different desktops and switch them for different work environments. Windows Vista does not offer this feature. Say you have a work environment with productivity applications, a home environment with entertainment, and a gaming environment. Ubuntu Spaces lets you switch among these.
Running other operating systems in virtual environments is gaining popularity, and included within this release of Ubuntu is paravirt-ops. This is a layer that allows Linux to run better under VMWare on other operating systems (such as under Parallels on Mac OS X). Paravirt-ops is designed for the more technical users. If you're already running Ubuntu, paravirt-ops won't do you much good. Instead, KVM allows you to run Windows and other operating systems as guests under Ubuntu. As with any virtualization, you need to have licenses for the additional operating systems that you run.
Another new feature in Ubuntu 7.04 is a better graphical environment for the desktop. It is optional, depending on which graphics card you have installed. Microsoft spent years developing the Windows Presentation Foundation so they could roll out translucent windows within Windows Vista and 3D stacking. Ubuntu has this, along with a way to make windows "wiggle" when moving. We disabled the wiggle effect after a short time.
What's missing? While Ubuntu ships with more hardware drivers than Windows Vista, it lacks some for wireless chipsets and Webcams. And while you can sync your iPod via other music applications, you can't make purchases through the iTunes Store (nor can you access any of the purchases you may have made while using Windows or Mac OSs). You can use WINE to try and install Windows applications, but the results may not always be satisfactory. Your best choice is to work with open-source applications written for Linux.
Performance
In general, our Ubuntu operating system was stable and performed as expected. On the same dual-boot system, our boot times compared with Windows XP. Occasionally, however, we noticed the time and date within Ubuntu skipping ahead or falling behind. we experienced no time and date problems within Windows XP. Also Ubuntu did not always wake up from sleep and sometimes needed to be rebooted the next morning.
Support
We found ample documentation for Ubuntu and have no complaint here. Ubuntu also enjoys a rich and active forum where most any question can be answered by a worldwide community of users. Also, the open-source community in general is helpful and transparent about security issues affecting its products. In short, we found help to be plentiful for this free operating system and its related applications.
Conclusion
Should you switch from Windows XP? It depends. If you are product-agnostic with your software choices, and mostly use the Internet or Internet-based services, then you might prefer Ubuntu's overall stability and simplicity. If you need to use Adobe Photoshop, iTunes or some other specific application, then you should stick with either Windows or Mac OS X, since those products won't necessarily work under Ubuntu.
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