Finally Sick Of Windows
For along time I’ve been a proponent of Windows, mostly because it has a nice file system navigator and is highly and easily configurable. For instance, putting several versions of Java, or even a new version of a JDK on a Windows machine is quite simple compared to the major hoops you have to jump through to put it on Mac or Linux.
But the last two newer machines, and my older XP notebook finally pulled the last straw. WINDOWS IS SLOW. Plain and simple. It constantly needs updating, it updates when your turning it off and updates when you are starting it up. The waiting is excrutiating.
On top of it the current an last places I worked at loaded encryption software on their hard drives; the Mac people didn’t have to face this. So deploying a WAR file to local Tomcat that takes 30 seconds literally could take 10-12 minutes.
No More Windows for me.
Plus there’s that little mac feature of close the notebook, open the notebook (which also seems to work for Linux) — the usability of an immediate on OS can’t be understated. And I love it.
We are in a world of a new battle for OS’s. Android could possibly be the next big OS. Chrome OS is a great answer to a lightweight featured user OS on lesser hardware. mac is merging a lot of its OS’s together to solidify user experience. Asus makes machines with two-second boot buttons running Linux. So that world, compared to Windows 7, loaded with McAffee and PGP and a thousand UI enhancements I don’t need, sloooow enhancements. Well for a power user and developer like myself its a no brainer: No More Windows.
I loaded Ubuntu 11 desktop on this notebook I am typing on; the install accommodated dual-boot very easily. It’s fast as hell, running solid. It has nice UX built in. All my programs, save one, run on it. I can close it, open it, close it, open it. What’s not to like?
My next notebook — when they release a quadcore ultra book that can take 8-16 gigs ram — will be running Mac OS or Linux. I’ve already decided.