And on the seventh day he make unix…
Well thats enough of that and back to the story. I think I left you at the beginning of my linux saga. Ubuntu, like many was my first foray into Linux, the familarity, ease and style were the main draw on the os and it served its purpose for many months working as a Webserver, Development machine and just for general day to day stuff. Though some things didnt work and required some hacking to fix, updates were always miles behind other platforms and the OS seemed full of bugs, it was fun. Getting down to the nitty gritty world of terminal was all to reminiscent of DOS and felt like actually using computers that a I saw as a child.
Sudo Bored!
Pfft… Anyway I had started a work placement as a web designer ish type of position and eventually came to maintain one of the webservers we used which was running on fedoral, ssh and terminal all the way baby. It even got to the point that they locked down are web connections and we used a text based web browser on the linux server. Woop mega geek!.
So that job ended which was a shame but also a massive weight lifted off my shoulders. Back to uni I ventured, to a course that seem to have lost all its ingenuity and excitement and slowly but surely Windows became my main operating system. due to having to work in 3ds max(not a fan). Weeks went by and work continued on the Laptop of doom, the thing slowly chugged along with 7 mins of battery per charge and a failing graphics card, I tried to play Unreal 3 on it and it kinda overheated.
So my heart sank, Windows an Os that I found lacking on a machine that was failing was the now my main machine. Deciding I needed a new machine I though I want something ultra portable, lightwieght and simple with a solid OS, basically a netbook running Mac OsX so thats what I did.
A dell Mini 10v running snow leopard, small enough to chuck in a bag and take anywhere and powerful enought to still run things like flash when I need to. In all honestly its probably the best machine Ive had for a while and until I get a new fullsize laptop is my main machine. Dont get me wrong though thew windows laptop still lives as a development and day to day machine at home, kinda of like a slimline ddesktop, however Linux has gone. The partition was too large and was stunting the space on the windows partition. However thanks to virtual box there is a virtual linux environment running on there as well for development. This is really two fold. One Apache on windows is buggy as hell and does not like to stay running properly and two I can use the windows machine for daya to day stuff and not worry about it affecting the dev machine in Linux.
So thats the state of things as they are today. 4 machines all living in some form of harmony, side by side on the desk in my room.
Not sure how that joke would end but hopefully in a massive fight. I’m by no means a fanboy of any particular environment, machine or ethos but have been in the past. I think its almost a right of passage that someone who spends the majority of there day on a computer has to undertake at somepoint in there life, other people have there own take on it but thats mine.
Starting of on a Windows machine at the age of 6 things have certainly changed a whole lot and this crazy thing called the internet has become the most important media revoluition in years. Anyhow back to my story, I loved windows and was a advocate of how easy the system was back in the day, good old 3.1 and DOS. I think that was the reason I fell in love with computers, that and the film hackers. Windows played a key role in my life, with windows 3.1 becoming 95, becmoing 98, becoming me, becoming XP, then vista hit and the world went to pot. Moreover I had also started at University and a recent rollout of Apple Macs gave me the chance to play.
Windows lost its appeal and Mac becaming a shining light of purity free from bluescreens, glitches and driver issues. My main computer at the time and still living actually was a Sony Vaio with XP installed but this soon came to feel inaddequate as the fanboys grew around me each with a shiny new mac that slowly pulled me away from the Vaio. Eventually I bought a second hand Mac Mini, strapped for cash being a student, it was heaven smooth sailing for a year or two and always on hand, the perfect little machine for the day. I fell in love with Apple and the iphone soon found its way into my pocket, thats still there to. Another year went by and a fair bit of travelling about with short stays herea and there meant that the Old Windows Laptop brough free of the cupboard and came back to life, although a little shaky and forgetful, it eventually got to the point where I could stand it no longer, on that day Linux came to play, a lot of bluescreens and driver issues had caused some serious hulabaloo in Windows land and I needed some work of the harddrive. Luckily the LiveCd was on hand and Linux seemed interesting.
Well thats enough for today, but theres still a lot to go.
