My first "Trackback" (!) :: (like, "I'm a first-time caller..." to your radio show)
-----------------------------------------------
Hey Gregor,
I liked your entry critiquing this 180+Kb of joys/noise(?) on "moving from Linux to Windows." That little piece sure generated a lot of Reply to This, whew.
Gregor J. Rothfuss :: Imagination is key to your dreams coming true
You and I had talked about this some.
My case? Windows user since long time; growing use of *nix last few years. But about four months ago, moved entirely from Windows to Linux on the (notebook) desktop, just for the Big Experiment of it all.
For what it's worth, I administer my site's hosting on FreeBSD, I ssh in to sundry *nix school/work systems, and at home it's been two dual-boot machines, (notebook + tower), so I can get as much Linux admin + user exposure as possible.
But it's been the total desktop user shiftover that has been decidely useful for my *nix skills, though yes there are desktop things that work better/easier back in the Windows side. I could see myself heading back there sometime (?), but, I couldn't tell you when. Probably still a _good_ long ways off... :^)
Anyway, to get here, I do have to admit I did go the easy route, and got the Linux guy at PCsForEveryone to install the dual-boot onto the notebook. Things looked a little too hairy on linux-on-laptops.com (and a lot of the contibutions being in German!). Red Hat install to desktop machines, O.K., but the notebook changes things.
In fact, even with the help, turns out:
1) I can't run WiFi native Centrino on the Linux side (no open code from Intel for Linux team to program to, I'm told); have to buy a PCMCIA card, etc., and even that's tricky, getting the right one, etc., I'm told.
2) The sound board is unhappy (no go) on the Linux side (that isn't killing me).
3) Battery management is there, sort of?, on Linux (dead easy automatic in Windows). Linux guy says I can "look it up on the web" how to get the (visible) icon to (actually) do something. (don't worry, I'm sort of chuckling at this -- what the hell, there is a hardware orange "idiot light" for me to see before I lose all my exciting lengthy blog entries before the power goes out on me kaput!)
4) The modem won't go on the Linux side at all, I'm told (that doesn't matter at all).
Random:
Slightly embarrassing, but took more doing than it ever should have to just get from installed 800x600 to 1024x768 resolution. That's 2 seconds in Windows.
The slightly deep voodoo of "how do I switch Workspaces without using the mouse?" also called for someone to show me where to go do it (then, it was easy, granted, but still).
Took me an also slightly embarrassing number of days to wean all off of MS PIM-ish tools onto the KDE set: e-mail; address book; organizer; notes; talk to my Palm Pilot, etc. etc. (and the Palm-2-Linux infrared is still a mystery, though it did sort of get half-way there? (useful, that)). The world of "documentation" on these sorts of things is still, ahem, a bit, eh, thin.
I finally got away from paying MS-Office (ouch, once) and use OpenOffice (which yes, I could be/should be/will be! using on Windows side too). Besides, I'm far too interested in OOs XML; and, who can afford to re-pay for Office-11, even if it does come with mo' better XML? (the which I'm reading is beginning to look less compelling, according to some in the know (some recent PCMag piece)).
And yes your lineup of Mozilla, Eclipse etc. is in line with things I do run on my Windows side (which I also do log in and run at times). Hooray for open source on the Microsoft platform. Of course.
Something Missing:
One nice (expensive; someone else paid for) tool on Windows only: Altova's XML Spy. Eclipse's XML Buddy hasn't been updated in a long while; I have to follow some links to others (off I.B.M. developerWorks, I believe). But XML Spy is quite strong and I've used it to good effect. (Likewise Corel's XMetal I've got; Win32 only. Ah well.)
As for the intellectual honesty and the crap filter and all, yep, I'd say there's a lot of knee-jerk-ness out there to be had, no question.
Thanks for your bit, on all the noise!
[Finally - I'd like to look further into that Mindmanager you mention. Interesting...]
Posted by William in category: Web at October 10, 2003 02:30 PM