Heyo,
I thought I would start a thread that would allow us to get to know each
other and why we ended up here. A little over a year ago I was planning my
normal 9 month schedule of reformatting my Windows desktop. I would
reformat every 9 months because I install a lot of developer software "just
to try it out". Well, after awhile things just seem to come to a grinding
halt and when I can't stand the slowness anymore I reformat and start with a
fresh install of Windows. Well the last time I was going to do that I
couldn't find my Windows XP Pro license key. I went to look at what a new
license would cost me and I almost swallowed my goiter.
At that point I decided I was going to try Linux again. At the time Ubuntu
was the most popular rising star so I went with that. I haven't looked back
since. I only reboot about once a month (after installing upgrades). I
haven't had to re-install the OS in over a year of use. And I love the fact
that it is easy to use (mostly) and doesn't cost me a dime (relative that
is).
The obvious drawback, and what does cost me "money", is the amount of time
it takes to do the switch. I have spent many hours trying to figure out how
to do xyz and abc. That is why I am hoping this forum will save many others
the initial pain I went through.
I have proceeded to switch all of my home machines to Ubuntu and now only
have a couple virtual instances of Windows (for Quickbooks and GoToMeeting
mostly) and one laptop that boots to Windows so I can use my Blackberry on
the road as a modem.
My primary job responsibilities are first RPG development, then Java, then
PHP, and a little C#.NET - all of which I can do on Ubuntu (including C#.NET
using Monodevelop).
What is your *nix story? (FYI, Using an asterisk in place of the L in Linux
is a way to reference both Unix and Linux which are very similar in nature
as I understand it. I also understand that Mac OSX is more based on Unix
than Linux. )
Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com
midrange.com
