I moved here knowing very little Spanish, this hasn’t been a problem. Many of the Spanish people don’t speak English, and so you will need to know the basics, but with a positive attitude and half a dozen phrases you should be able to get by just fine. I have found intuition to be crucial here, in supermarkets for example there is often small talk surrounding how many bags you require, by watching carefully at the gestures made you should be able to figure out what they are asking. It’s usually how many bags do you require.

The other situation where you will need some basic Spanish is at bars and restaurants. The Spanish are very friendly though, and will not get annoyed if you butcher their language (unlike their north-eastern neighbours and I don’t mean the Andorrians!). Yo quiero <insert drink/food here> will usually do the trick. That’s “I want”, and don’t worry it isn’t considered too direct or rude, as it might be in other countries. Brand names are your friend, Coca-cola, Budweiser etc will be understood and so you can safely stick to them if you need to.

One of the key differences between here and the UK I have found is in the hours that certain things happen during a typical day. Restaurants don’t do their best business until much later, which is a plus. Shops also open much later, but hold on I’m beginning to sound like one of those really obvious paperbacks you get bought when moving to Spain! The key point is that the daily timetable is different, and so adapting is necessary rather than optional.

The weather has been spectacular. It has rained once properly since June. My accommodation is about 20 minutes from shops/bar/restaurants. I would suggest that without a car this is too far, as one trip to the shops can leave your clothing soaked with sweat! Living near the beach is fantastic though, I don’t think I would want to live anywhere inland anymore.

The roads in Spain have been fine, the Spanish drivers aren’t the best, but a competent driver should be able to avoid their swerves! Fuel seems to be about 10% cheaper than the UK, so that was a bonus.

However I feel that it’s unlikely to worry those at Microsoft and Apple too much. Windows 7 is a triumphant release, having used it for six months so far I rate it as possibly the best thing Microsoft has ever done (outside of the Xbox 360). Apple is becoming a bigger name by the day, with the masses well aware of the iPhone and iPod, it’s inevitable that some of those looking for a new computer will be swayed towards the Mac.

Ubuntu has many great features, but critically it’s what it doesn’t have which would put off a casual user. Open Office may be fairly compatible, and is certainly usable, but it’s no MS Office. From school, to the office, to the home people are used to Word and Excel. In fact I believe many don’t know the difference between these two applications and Windows itself. Open Office works, but it is inferior to MS Office. When so many users pirate MS Office anyway the fact Open Office is available for free doesn’t quite have the beneficial effect you’d imagine.

With so many games now being played through the browser this isn’t a key issue to discuss. With the PC games market not quite what it used to be (and Linux/Mac ports fairly common) this shouldn’t hold back anyone wishing to move from Windows to Linux.

When it comes to security Ubuntu Linux wins hands down, in fact it wins by such a margin that there isn’t really a debate on offer here. If Linux and it’s distributions were actually targeting the home market (they’re not, more on that later) then this would be a huge selling points over Windows.

Windows 7 wins on looks, just, with a bit of effort Ubuntu can be beautiful, but out of the box Windows 7 is already ahead. Getting Ubuntu looking great can be a bit technical, which rules out many casual PC users.

As a developer I’ve always enjoyed working with Microsoft Visual Studio. It’s a fantastic piece of software and it’s only when you try to use something else that you realise how good it actually is. The IDE options in Linux aren’t limited, but none of the available options come close to Visual Studio.

Ultimately though on the whole Linux is written for the Linux community. It isn’t trying to be a Windows 7 beater, it’s trying to be a Linux beater.

In the future I believe most computers sold will be of the portable variety. I also believe most users will be using these devices to surf the web and check email. With these requirements it is certainly possible that a Linux distribution could end up on a popular device and really awaken the masses to the advantages of Linux. However this isn’t certain to ever happen, with Microsoft and Apple and of course Google pushing their devices hard it seems unlikely that a third party will rock up with a must have device running the netbook version of Ubuntu.

So to sum up, if you are a computer user who likes the idea of something new, and are semi-technical, then Ubuntu 10.04 will offer many hours of enjoyment and satisfaction. You may even decide to drop Windows for good. I know I’m now at the point where I could cope without Windows. My reason for ultimately choosing it will be Visual Studio, at least until a comparable piece of software is available on Linux.

Reasons to use Ubuntu 10.04: Free, solid, secure, easy to use, huge number of apps, great browsers.

Reasons to use Windows 7 and not Ubuntu: MS Office, commercial apps at retail, better games.

Or you could do what I do and use both! That’s probably the way to go for now.

Above is the link to the source code and all assets for my Football League Simulator project.

I’ve released this because I believe some of the text/ticker code could be useful to some people.