Somewhere, on some IRC server that only folks who are hardcore in some Usenet Group would know about, there are a group of people plotting the take down of Microsoft. Sure, there’s probably several groups that fit this description, but only one of them have a chance at succeeding. These people work for a company called Canonical, and they are the makers of Ubuntu Linux.

Ubuntu really isn’t much different than the bazillions of distros of linux that tens of hundreds of people use religiously. It runs the solid Debian kernel, it comes with the familiar and pretty ordinary Gnome Desktop Environment, and it’s standard bundle gives you all the usual open-source suspects like Open Office, Pidgin and Firefox.

No, there isn’t hardly anything unusual about Ubuntu Linux at all. You pop in the disk, install it, and you’re up and running. All your drivers work, everything is just as you’d expect.

This, my friends, is hardly usual in a Linux Distro. Ubuntu’s Device Compatibility trumps Windows XP’s, and I would be willing to bet that it rivals Vista.

I’ve been an avid fan of Ubuntu since those Dapper Drake days, and I have to say, inspite of a few glaring flaws in their blue tooth implementation, namely having to drop to the terminal to pair my Bluetooth Mouse, it’s finally getting to the point where Microsoft should start worrying.

Even before Compiz forked in to Beryl and Desktop Compositing was new, Ubuntu was far better than Vista as far as graphical features were. It’s not as pretty as Windows Vista, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s a billion times more usable, freer, and just as impressive looking when you show it off to your friends.

It makes me wonder, though. My father, who just discovered Expose and Dashboard earlier today, might decide that such features aren’t really necessary for being productive in front of a computer.

I figure, though, that once he realizes how useful visual aides are in turning a shit computing experience in to the best one he’ll ever have, he might just realize why Mac OSX and Ubuntu beat the hell out of Micosoft’s Windows.