I’m ditching Microsoft Windows at home. Considering that I make my living running Web Sites on IIS, most people may this this is a big deal. Get over it. It’s really a matter of practicality.
No, I’m not crazy. My current PC is circa 2003 (AMD 3200+, 1.5GB RAM, nVidia FX 5700). Right now I’m using Fedora and testing Ubuntu. Both are awesome OSes which have a mature code base while including modern features like virtual desktops and a screen shot application. Package management and OS updates are incredibly simple. yum update. No mess, no fuss. Linux is excellent as an (web) application development platform, if you are deploying to linux. Packages can be the same for desktop / server environments which means that you aren’t troubleshooting many deployment issues due to incompatibility. If you are considering using a Mac for Web Application development, read Ted Dziuba’s Experience.
My design skills aren’t great, so I’ll copy a design or hire out a design expert for projects. Most design professionals I know use a Mac. Presumably because it can run photoshop, illustrator and javascript authoring tools. The Mac also has the ability to run every browser on the planet ( with VMWare fusion ) which is useful for debugging application issues by browser. With the above being said, linux doesn’t work too well with the following:
- Run iTunes – (Wine doesn’t count)
- It does run songbird though
- Execute powershell scripts
- Run photoshop, fireworks
- Sync my iPhone (well, it can’t run iTunes)
- DSLR Camera support
I like songbird, but the features in iTunes is still a no brainer when paired with my iPhone. Everything just works… well most of the time except when iTunes thinks my iPhone was connected to another PC/Mac.
Running IIS Web Sites means using powershell. Linux nerds have bash. Solaris geeks have korn shell. Windows zealots have powershell. Let me tell you that this is certainly one of the reasons why Windows administrators still have a job and still want work with Windows. Linux can’t run powershell, so I’ll need a virtual box running a VM to develop my powershell cmdlets and scripts, not a big deal for this). FYI, PowerGUI is awesome for authoring powershell scripts
Linux does have wine (Wine is not an emulator) which can execute windows programs. Photoshop CS3 has been known to run in wine on linux. I have CS4 which won’t run well in wine, so I’ll need Windows or a Mac to run it. I’m not up for learning gimp or gimpshop. Running photoshop or video editing tools in a VM is well…. slow, especially if you are opening large files. The process could be sped up by using SSDs and a raw disk format, but that’s too much work for me, plus I’m working with my circa 2003 PC.
Since linux doesn’t run iTunes, it’s not going to sync my iPhone apps, music, playlists. There are some programs out there to sync music and movies, but I want to whole package. Need Windows or a Mac for this.
The camera of choice is a Canon t1i. Canon’s software installs on Windows and a Mac. In my brief search on the Internets, libgphoto2 provides support for the camera (.cr2) format within gPhoto or gimp. So, I can get the images off the camera, but I can’t run photoshop. Winner Windows / Mac.
Conclusion
The Linux desktop has come a long way with installation and ease of use. Some popular software packages are not on the platform. Linux is an excellent desktop environment for basic tasks as well as web application development. Specific tasks for video, photo editing as well as iPhone integration are getting there, but not where it makes sense to switch over. I’ll be running two OSes for the time being. Windows for the non-linux stuff like powershell, powergui, photoshop etc, and Linux for everything else. OK, so I’m not completely ditching Windows, but I am maximizing the benefit of Linux while still preserving my other application requirements.
