Back On Windows, And I Still Find It Lacking

Yesterday was my first day back on a Windows laptop full time at work. I have not used Windows as my primary OS for work since sometime back in 2007 when I had the opportunity to dual-boot my corporate laptop to run Ubuntu. Ever since that day, Windows was always the afterthought, not the prime OS on my machines.

But I started a new job yesterday that requires Windows. Not only does it require Windows, but the target hardware is running embedded Windows. And I have set aside C programming for the time being and taken up the C# programming language for my new job. 

Yes, my programming world has changed.

Do I mind? Not really. I still know that Linux rules the embedded space, and the server space, and completely owns the super-computer space. And I will still use Linux at home. I know that I will still be writing C code on my personal projects and C# is an excellent language. That is sufficient.

No, I don't mind. This new job gives me the opportunity to advance my skill set and do something different for a change. A welcome change actually. I needed to be challenged with something new again. And getting used to the constraints of Windows again will definitely be a challenge.

But I have been using Windows 7 and XP off and on when necessary since I made the conversion to full-time Linux. But I didn't have to rely on it. Mostly I booted into Windows at home just to play World of Warcraft and at booted to Windows at work just to access some Word document that used some obscure feature of Word that Microsoft decided to not document in their "standard".

Yet I still found it a bit shocking how much I have to wait on my computer. This Dell laptop has a Core i7 CPU at 2.7 GHz and 8 GB RAM and is running Windows 7. It is slower than my previous work computer with a Core i5 at the same clock rate and RAM when running Linux Mint and the Cinnamon UI.

And no, there's nothing wrong with the laptop. A Windows user would probably agree that it is quite zippy. But the Linux user would complain of delays.

Seriously. It seems like there is delay in every mouse click and every access to a flash drive.

The other thing that is a bit numbing was realizing I could no longer simply "sudo apt-get install" anything I needed. If you need to do something, you have to find the app for that. I did remember "portable apps" and I downloaded and installed that. That is a big improvement but I still lack the control of the environment that I had in Linux.

So here I am on day 2 of my return to the Windows world. I have determined to satisfy my Linux cravings by keeping my personal machines and personal devices on Linux and I accept that the company I am working for now deems the use of Windows on the desktop and Windows in the devices to be a good thing. For them, it works and I have no complaints.

I will probably write some more over time as I try to adjust my software development paradigm to the Windows way. It requires me to change because developing embedded C code on Linux and developing embedded C# code on Windows are two different paradigms.

Imagine growing up and learning to drive here in America. Driver sits on the left, cars pass on the right. Imagine you've been doing that for years. Now you move to England. Driver sits on the right, cars pass on the left.

It's that different.

I know there are some out there would say "oh you just need to try Windows 8 and you'll change your mind".

No. No I won't. I've tried Windows 8 and I completely dislike Windows 8. It is a disaster and Microsoft knows it. As far as Windows goes, Windows 7, in its latest patches, is probably the pinnacle of the Windows family of operating systems. The last one to have such solid working was probably Windows 98, second edition. That is not a joke.

It's not about hating on Microsoft. It's not about loving on Linux. It's not about fan boys or fan girls. And it's not about technical purity. It's about the OS experience.

I have tried Windows many times. I have used it as a user, a tester, and a developer. And I have this to say to Windows:

"You have been weighed. You have been measured. And you absolutely have been found wanting."

Copyright 2013, Kevin Farley (a.k.a. sixdrift, a.k.a. neuronstatic)