A Year In Linux

Today I was talking technical with a colleague and we were discussing everything from web site programming to computer operating systems. We talked about all aspects of software and even computer hardware. Yes. It was one of those "geek sessions". And I say that with pride.

During this conversation, I related the fact that I had been at the company for just over a year. And during my entire year at this company I have used a Linux desktop exclusively the entire time. I had a dual boot machine available to use Windows, but I only booted it into Windows once and that was only a specific task. So for almost 54 weeks straight now, my primary desktop computer has had some flavor of Linux running on it: OpenSuse on my primary desktop machine, and Ubuntu on my secondary desktop machine.

Just to note, I am a software developer and because of this, I often use two (or more) computers at any one time to develop and test software. So a second machine is not a luxury, its a requirement.

About 10 months ago I loaded Xubuntu Linux on an old laptop to breathe life back into it. That old Toshiba laptop had 128 MB of RAM and ran a 650 MHz processor. When Windows ran on it, it was to put it in my favorite way of describing it "pig-dog slow". I don't really know what "pig-dog slow" would really mean, but I mean it as "so slow it would make you want to jump out in front of a bus".

But Xubuntu (with alternate text install) ran very well on that old laptop. And a few months later I upped the RAM to a total of 384 MB and "bam!" it ran even better. I know, I borrowed that quote from some other guy who has nothing to do with computing, but oh well.

The point is, after 54 weeks of primary usage on a Linux desktop I have come to some conclusions and I thought I would record them here. So the next part is called:

Five Things I Learned From Using Linux Exclusively For An Entire Year
or
How To Get Fresh Air Without Opening Windows

1. I did not have to change WHAT I do on the computer, but I did adapt HOW I do things on the computer.

The thing I believe is most important to many people is "do I have to change?". What I found is "yes, you do have to adapt." But what I also found out is that the adaptation was not hard and was not so utterly complex that average people could not manage it. Clearly, average people manage much more complex systems every day in all facets of life. So while some change is needed, you don't have to reinvent your basic processes.

2. I experienced far fewer system lockups and crashes than I ever did running Windows.

I will tell you that yes in fact, I did have system failures. But I will also point out that all of them were related to desktop applications and all failures except for two (yes 2) were resolved with one of single most magnificent features of the Linux desktop: killing the display server with a ctl-alt-backspace three-finger salute. What that does is kill the GUI and leave the OS up and humming. So all I had to do was "login" again. No reboot was necessary except for the 2 times noted. I think I lock up the desktop about once a month.

3. There are software applications for Linux that really are superior to the Microsoft offerings.

I have been a long-time OpenOffice user and really find it to be far superior to MS Office, especially since the most recent update to MS Office which made the entire suite nearly unusable. Additionally, Evolution is just as good (or just as bad depending on your position) as MS Outlook. I personally don't like Outlook at all and hence I am not thrilled with Evolution, but it does integrate with MS Exchange mail servers so there is an advantage there. I think I really prefer Thunderbird email client really. But our company uses Exchange and I need the connection to that... sigh. So far the only thing I can't find an equal or better for is Visio - which was bought by MS, not developed by them.

4. Just because you have a zillion choices on how to do things doesn't mean you have to explore them all.

There are hundreds of Linux distributions (called distros) and there are multiple window managers as well as multiple desktop environments for Linux. However, I stuck with the mainline distros and their default setups. I really don't have the time to experiment with all the combinations of these layers of software so I stuck with Ubuntu/Gnome and OpenSuse/Gnome on my desktops and Xubuntu/Xfce4 on my laptop. I am not a big fan of KDE and I can still run all their applications on Gnome and Xfce4 as long as I have the libraries installed. So sticking with the popular distro choices makes the prospect of choosing much easier. And for a MS Windows user, this should seem quite natural because there is only one choice on MS Windows.

5. I found that most of the time the things I do could be done on any desktop operating system.

Email, word processing, web browsing, listening to music, watching videos, photo editing, and even writing software can be done on Linux, BSD, Solaris, Mac OSX, and MS Windows in very, very, similar ways. And I think that because I stick to cross-platform and open source software, I really think it is the application environment that is much more important to most users. The applications I use are portable and so for me, my environment pretty much stays the same regardless of the underlying host operating system.

So there you have it. Completely useless drivel about how I like using Linux and why I no longer care about the OS wars. All the lemmings can use their MS Windows computers and I don't care. All the uber-geek l33t haxors can use their obscure variant distro of Linux and I don't care. The acolytes of Steve Jobs can sway to the groove of their Mac OSX and I don't care. And the gearheads can run all other flavors of Unix and I don't care.

I know what it is I need to do, and I use the tool that is best for me to do it. So there you have it. Not necessarily all that profound or novel. In fact it has been known by tradesmen for centuries. What is this great philosophical conjuration?

Use the right tool for the job.

Now back to work. I have several open terminal windows with command lines staring at me wanting me to compile software. Never fear the command line. The command line is the doorway to real power on a computer and allows entry behind the pre-school widgets that GUIs limit you to.



Copyright 2008, Kevin Farley (a.k.a. sixdrift, a.k.a. neuronstatic)

Wrapping It Up

This past Christmas, which wrapped up only last week, was an unusual Christmas for me. We were headed for the hills of West Virginia to spend time with my mother and my kin. We were going to spend Christmas as a family. We were going to spend Christmas together. And we were going to experience some firsts.

This was the first Christmas my step-children got to spend Christmas with my side of the family. This was the first Christmas for my son as an official adult (18 years old). This was the first year in a LONG time I would be able to attend the Christmas family reunion. And sadly, it was the first Christmas without my father.

But before Christmas, our dining room table was a complete mess. Why you ask? Because I was wrapping gifts and had bags, tags, papers, and tape everywhere. And so many others did around the same time in late November and into December. And I was running very late and even was wrapping up things on December 23.

Also, my mother had her own wrapping up to do. She fell a few days before Christmas and fractured the bone leading up to her thumb (or something like that in her wrist/hand). So her right arm was wrapped in a splint-like device and she was not allowed to use her hand as normal. And yes, she is right-handed.

So my wife and I, along with our kids, trundled up into the hills and came to the aid of my mother. We wrapped up party plans, gift plans, visiting, and shopping, and all the little details of life for my mother for Christmas. And we enjoyed every minute of it.

I know my father would have enjoyed being there with all the kids. He would have enjoyed having everyone in the house and all the noise and laughter and even all the tales told. Because when you get a bunch of hillbillies together, you get a lot of tall tales. Some of them might have even had some truth to them.

So my brother and I told the family tales and elaborated on our memories of our father and our adventures together. We told stories of hunting, fishing, building, tearing down, and all other antics of male family life. We want our kids to know my father even if he is not here to tell them himself. You could also say we want our kids to know my father even if he is not here to defend himself.

It was a homespun home-run if you ask me :-)

So once all the packages were opened, all the turkey eaten, all the tales told, and all the joy we could muster had been shared generously, it was time to wrap it up and head back home. We left the tall and steep hills of West Virginia and returned again to the gentler slopes of the foothills in North Carolina.

Pulling into our driveway, there was our hound dog Millie waiting for us. She had been outside for a week and was more than ready to come inside for a change. She is an outside dog and the weather was actually quite pleasant for the time of the year it was. But still, she likes to sleep inside, and she needs at least 18 hours of sleep a day.

It seems as though no sooner had we returned than we were stirring again. The kids were going to a youth camp the next day and were already repacking. The youngest two kids spent those days with their paternal grandparents and so my wife and I had the house alone for two nights. Sleeping in is really awesome. But staying up late is very exciting, if you follow me.

And so our youth finally returned, wrapping up their year with a church camp event and staying up too late and eating way too much candy. The youngest ones wrapped up their year with yet more family. My wife and I wrapped up our year mostly snuggling together whenever we could. And Millie? Well, Millie wrapped up her year the way a hound dog should wrap up their year. She slept from one year to the next.

So 2007 is officially over. It has not been a good year in many ways. And yet there are many positives to it. We pray that 2008 brings us more joy than last year and we can look back on it and say "it was a good year".

And to wrap up this post, I think I will leave this thought: its not the road behind us that really shapes our future, its the choices we make on the road ahead that has the most impact. 


Copyright 2008, Kevin Farley (a.k.a. sixdrift, a.k.a. neuronstatic)