Ubuntu are really pushing for their Linux distribution to be available on tablets and mobile `phones. They have created an advertisement that is almost a carbon copy of the Apple advertisements. But they are not on an equal footing, the Ubuntu Linux distribution is not used as much as the the popular Apple Macintosh operating system. But it is a good desktop operating system with the right desktop interface and the right software installed. I recommend Audacity for playing music and Chromium for browsing the web; that way you can integrate your Google account and access your E-Mail and Youtube account very easily. I am using the Xfce4 desktop on my computer at the moment; it works very well with my dual monitor setup and the Xfce4 interface works perfectly with this setup. Just like Windows 7; but Linux Mint does not need activation and anti-virus software to keep it free of malicious software and viruses. That is why Linux on the desktop is such a good idea. Windows 8 is a release that is far below the standard. Why is the Media Center option a separate product that you need to pay for? That is bonehead retarded.
But there are options for Linux like Xbox Media Center that offer a similar system on Linux. That way you can deploy a Linux box that will be very secure and have a fast and safe Media Centre experience on Linux. Go here for more information about this product: http://www.xbmc.org. I should try this out on Linux and see how well this works. Windows 8 in JB HIFI was only 58.00; but I am not tempted to buy this as I am worried about how well my games will run on this product. I would prefer to stick with Windows 7 for DoomBuilder 2 and other software that will not run with wine. Steam is available for Linux and surely many games will surely follow. You could run a simple window manager like Blackbox which takes up next to no ram and then run your games that way; then they would run very fast indeed. There is a client available here: steamcommunity.com/linux. This is very promising indeed; I should try this out and see how well the client runs on Linux Mint 14. There is a growing catalogue of Linux supported games on Steam and this is a very promising thing indeed. Is Linux the future of gaming?
It surely is more secure and reliable than Windows. This WIKI page on the Ubuntu WIKI explains the process of setting up Steam on Linux and dealing with any problems that you might encounter along the way. I say that if you have a powerful enough computer go for it and install the Steam client and see how well it performs on your computer. The actual installation instructions are here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Valve#Installation. My favorite game Doom II is available on Steam for only $11.99 at the time of writing; this is very cheap for such a good game. Another classic game, Quake, is only $5.99. This is another game well worth playing for old time`s sake. The classic games of the past live again.