Windows Free

Well, I am now Windows free. It was a really hard decision emotionally since I have been a die hard PC guy since the beginning. And I do mean the beginning. I guess I am dating myself when I say that I have been using and developing on PCs since they were invented. I had the first IBM PC and several clones. I always ran MS-DOS and later Windows. I was a beta tester for Windows 95 and the MSN! I have installed and loved the betas of every MS OS since. I even had Windows 7 installed until two weeks ago.

So what changed? Virii! I have always had PCs and have never used or needed anti-virus software. The few times I tried it it seemed to always make things worse. Slower running machines and overall poor user experience. Well, in the last few months my system has been brought to it's knees several times by nasty little bugs. And it's not my fault! I blame the kids these days. They have no idea how to be careful net citizens. Apparently they listen to warnings about computer viruses and trojans as well as they do our warnings about sex and drugs! So after three rebuilds in four months I had to make a change.

I am now running Ubuntu 9.04 on my work laptop as well as my home desktop. So far everything is working perfectly. I still have my Windows 2008 VMs for doing dev work locally, but I do most everything via RDP on real Windows Servers. I also bought a Mac Mini for the family to use for general computing tasks that are not handled elegantly on Linux (ie iPhone sync and games for the kids).

I will really miss you Windows. Maybe we can hook back up one of these days, you know, for old times sake?