Vista Basic, the name is self explanatory by itself. You probably will be pretty better off with Windows XP, a good anti virus program and a firewall. There is not much on the user interface point of view as well; you can get more using the Vista Transformation Pack on Windows XP.

To enjoy the true potential of Vista, it would be a better idea to go for the Vista Home Premium edition which would include the Aero desktop (glass and some 3D eyecandy), better multimedia features with media center and networking capabilities. The biggest bummer would be compatibility with your Windows XP applications, so if you think you cant live without your favorite applications, you might want to check the availability of the same or its alternative on Vista before going in for the OS change. Like for instance, DivX wouldn’t install, so you could try out alternatives like ffdshow or KLite codec pack. Nevertheless, major software vendors are already shipping vista compatible versions of their software. Vista Ultimate would probably be an overkill for the price you are paying.

A feature comparison between the Vista editions can be found on the Microsoft website. Its recommended to run the Vista upgrade advisor that generates device and software compatibility reports and recommendations.

One note, if you are a system builder, you could probably try to source a OEM version which will not drill holes in your pocket. The difference with the retail version would be that the product will not come in a fancy box, no technical support and the activation code will be tied with you motherboard. All other features with the OS including product auto updates will still be available.

1. Amarok
Amarok is a unix/linux music player with a nice interface, playlist manager, 10 band equalizer and also automatically fetches your album cover art.

sudo apt-get install amarok

2. VLC
With your music needs sorted out with the above, now to your videos. You needn’t look any further than VLC, by far the best cross platform media player. You could also install the VLC plugins and use it as a streaming server.

sudo apt-get install vlc vlc-plugin-*

Rarely would one not be satisfied with VLC, in which case you could read about the restricted file formats here

3. Automatix2
You could install all your favorite software like picasa, google earth, skype and many more by visiting their respective sites. Alternatively Automatix2 has a collection of top rated software that can be installed almost instantaneously as you please. Read more about installing automatix2 <a href=”http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Feisty#Automatix2″>here</a>

4. If you have dual booted Ubuntu with Windows you probably would want your windows NTFS filesystem mounted with read/write functionality.

- Take a backup of your existing fstab
sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.bak

- Install the ntfs-3g driver
sudo apt-get install ntfs-config

- Now launch ntfs-config under the system tools menu and enter a name for your mount point.
Read more here

5. Remove the annoying system beep.

- From the terminal execute the following command to disable the system beep for the session
sudo modprobe -r pcspkr

- If you want to take this into effect every time your system boots, Add the following at the bottom of /etc/rc.local file.
— /etc/rc.local —
modprobe -r pcspkr
exit 0
— X —

6. If you are running Ubuntu on you laptop, you probably would like to have your LCD turned off when the lid is closed. Ubuntu only blanks the screen with the backlight staying ON and contributing to unwanted heat generation. Read this guide and edit the /etc/acpi/actions/lm_lid.sh script.

7. Beagle
If you are a fan of google desktop, you might want to consider Beagle, a powerful data indexing tool

sudo apt-get install beagle

8. Beryl
For some out of the world eye candy, apart from Ubuntu desktop effects install Beryl. Beryl is an OpenGL accelerated desktop with underlying Compiz libraries that bring out some fantastic desktop effects like workspaces on a cube, window decorations and actions and many more screen effects. Read this guide to get Beryl setup on your computer.

9. This point is added just for kicks
But seriously, what this point would really signify is that, your journey in discovering the true potential of open source has just started and it is up to you to take it forward.

Related Post:
some OS please!!

[ Source: Hyperlinks at appropriate places ]