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In the last 48 hours, I have been through a quiet revolution. Installing an open source operating system on my laptop has opened my eyes to quite a different way of working on my computer. Since deciding that I needed to bring my 'mobile computing' up to date so that I can blog, tweet, email and navigate my way through the world, I have been through a process of balancing my desires with my budget. Thankfully, my head ruled and the credit crunch brought me back to earth by sifting between what I want with what I need.

My laptop, as previously mentioned is a fairly bog-standard, two year old machine which used to run Windows Vista with Microsoft Office 2007, plus a load of other applications until I deleted the lot and installed PCLinuxOS. My laptop needs a new battery (£35) and I bought a new power adaptor for it off eBay (£7-50) after my children broke it when carrying the laptop around with the power lead still in the socket. So, having spent £7-50 on the power lead and £6-49 on the magazine which contained PCLinuxOS, I now have hit this month's budget for IT spending and will have to rely on power from the mains until I get that battery. I'm not planning now to splash out on shiny new netbooks, tablets of smart phones while I can make use of good laptop which now runs at lightning speed.

So, what about using Linux (the basis of PCLinuxOS)? For one thing, it's very much a 'web experience'. I have tried installing some of the recommended desktop applications and some are great (like the free money management software) while some others are not so good (I have not succeeded with any of the Twitter applications, for example). Instead, I have installed Google Chrome as my default web browser, which beats Internet Explorer hands down for speed, easy searching and fantastic bits of software called 'extensions' which allow you do more useful things with the web browser).

For twittering, I now just use the online client called 'Hootsuite' which helps you organise the interesting tweets from the minutiae of people's lives. For writing blog posts, I tried installing free blogging clients, like BloGTK, none of which worked. Instead, I installed a Chrome extension called 'ScribeFire' (which is what I an using to write this post) which works beautifully. For email, I installed the free 'ThunderBird client from Mozilla and installed some 'Add On' tools (Lightning & Provider) which enabled me to sync all of the emails that GMail collects for me, as well as synchronising with Google Calendar.

I have also come to realise that Linux is like ice cream. You can have any flavour you like, unlike Microsoft's Windows where all you get to choose are which version is going to crash the least and how many cups of tea you can make while it boots up. PCLinuxOS comes with different versions of the desktop (e.g. KDE, Gnome, LXDE) which means you can choose what you like best in terms of look & feel, and applications, for example. There are other versions of Linux, for which the lingo is 'distros', like Ubuntu (the most popular), Fedora, Linux Mint and OpenSUSE.

But, what is most apparent is that, as a Linux user, you are part of a community. It feels much like social media, in that when you let people what you are doing they will welcome you to the fold, offer you help, point you to where you can find support and information. It also feels like being on my motorbike - free. I'm free from me being a slave to Windows and their lack of speed. I'm free from the cost associated with Windows where, when I buy a new laptop or computer, I have to buy a whole load of software to protect my investment from hackers and phishers, where Linux is more secure and, therefore, faster. I'm free from having to buy Microsoft Office which is just too much for what I need at home.

So, if you do decide to install or use Linux on your laptop, be prepared to think differently and free yourself from walking through treacle when are computing at home with Windows.

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• Links: GNU/Linux Spreads in India, Netbooks (techrights.org)