There were a couple of things that I didn’t mention yesterday about my moving from Windows XP to Linux on my work laptop:
- While I could probably configure another distro like Ubuntu to have the things I need, I don’t want to do it for this machine. I explicitly want to use the distribution and base configuration that other IBM people will start with.
- I’m going to add any applications I need for my particular needs. Today I spent some time looking at programmer editors and installed Komodo Edit, which looks wonderful. (I’m not going to use Emacs, so don’t even go there.)
- I’ve been using flavors of Unix for almost 30 years including SunOS, AIX, HP-UX, and some others. These types of operating systems don’t scare me. Windows does scare me.
- I’m not looking for handholding or support beyond making sure that I can get through the firewall and accessing my email within.
- Much of what I do today I do in a browser. The underlying operating system is increasingly irrelevant.
- I like to experiment with software. This is fun. So much for any remaining doubt of my geekness.
- I’m motivated. This is personally long overdue.
I’m still pure; no use of Windows at all today.
I’ve been using Ubuntu as a base OS on my workstation since late October. I’ve virtualized XP Pro with Virtual Box because I need to administer a Lotus Domino box and believe it or not I cannot administer Domino with Linux yet. I use Windows as sparingly as possible. I dont’ authenticate to our Windows domain controller, but by using Samba I do connect to some of our network and exchange Office files with Office 2003 users. So far no issues have arisen. Good luck with your Linux only experiment.