I have not run a Windows desktop since the 90s. I migrated from Windows 95 to FreeBSD with Enlightenment (e) and never looked back. Over the years I gradually shifted to Linux with e, every now and then switching to GNOME, KDE, or Fluxbox. These were always short lived, and I always ended up on e again. I was sad when e missed a few major chances to update or add new things, and the next version seemed like an awesome set of libraries, but never materialized as a usable desktop (yet). I would try out the new e every now and then. And then I found Beryl, which made GNOME much more usable, and shiny pretty flashy all at once. During the chaos of the Beryl/Compiz departure/re-joining, I would alternate between old e and GNOME/Beryl/Compiz. Eventually Compiz stabilized and GNOME/Compiz was the desktop for me for years. It worked, I was happy, and nothing else seemed to be even plausibly better.

Then one day I became rudely awakened that my favorite Linux Distro (Ubuntu) had gone down some horrible path and decided to make a new, completely lame, desktop called Unity. Being used to the open source world, and the total amount of control I didn’t worry about it. I gave Unity a few hours research, a few weeks trial in use, decided it was a pile of steaming shit, and moved back to my GNOME/Compiz. After upgrading my home Ubuntu to the latest/greatest version I was given another rude awakening. NO MORE GNOME/Compiz. W-T-F. Sure, I could go back and build it myself, but I have grown lazy (not to mention busy), and if I wanted LFS I would have LFS. I did a little research, downgraded my Ubuntu and went happily back to GNOME/Compiz on 10.04. Then, a co-worker who had run into much the same problem told me that Linux Mint had “solved” the GNOME 3/Unity dilemma rather aptly. As Mint had been the version of Linux I recommend to anyone for desktop use, and only did not use since I wanted my Linux to  match the Linux I used in production as closely as possible, I was hopeful. They had a GNOME 3 hackup with Compiz to act much like the GNOME/Compiz I had known and loved. I quickly jumped ships to Mint, and have been happy there for the past few months.

The problem with Mint, however, is that they have diverged from some of the basic functionality I am used to in Linux. I’m sure I could spend the time and “fix” this, but the fact these minor issues were not a simple option in the control panel, and that they had deviated from “standard” Linux (read every other version I have used ever), was not a good sign. The best illustration of this is that when I highlight something in Linux with a quick slick and drag with my mouse, it is immediately and awesomely put onto my middle click clip board. I use this probably 300 times a day, and it is the main reason I ever touch my mouse.

Thus my Linux world has been shattered. Now, I’m not crazy enough to consider running Windows on an actual production server, and my deepest sympathy to those of you who have made this error, but I do need a functional, working, usable, desktop. And Linux has consistently been in decline in this area. It’s probably worth mentioning that other areas of Linux have been annoying over the last few years, kernel “taint”? Really? Grow up guys, if I want binary close sourced drivers, I don’t need a nag that my junk is now ‘tainted’, and I don’t really give a shit if you’re hungup on it. In addition, there have been a boatload of security problems userspace to kernel that have made Linux security less defensible, and this was one of the key areas for it’s widespread adoption on servers. Throw in the occasional kernel panic bug, and Linux doesn’t get let into the club house of bomb proof OS’s like FreeBSD and openBSD.

So, being of sound mind and reasonable technical aptitude, I decided that Mac OS X was the way to go. I already have MacBooks, Mac Mini’s, iMacs, iPhones, iPods, iPads, I ought to run OS X on my main workstation. Sadly I am not retarded enough to throw money away on a Mac Desktop, even though they are very nice, so I decided to go the Hackintosh route. This is a very good route, and I have bought more than all versions of OS X from Apple. I got a USB drive and hit the forums on http://tonymacx86.com/ and decided I was already in luck, having a Gigabyte motherboard, an Nvidia graphics card, plenty of RAM and a fast CPU. I installed my first Hackintosh and was up and running in less than an hour. It was awesome. I was excited. This was a good progress. But, no sound. I searched forums, and tried a few things, but, again, lazy and busy. Having no sound via my HDMI connection to my home TV/stereo was a deal breaker. I wasn’t ready to admit it, so I tried installing my hackintosh on my work computer. It worked much less well. Intel CPU, intel chipset, but not Gigabyte, and not working easily. I went back to Linux, and decided to hold off on change for now.

Mint wasn’t bad, and I had a lot to get done. I swapped computers to one that would more likely work as a hackintosh. But, it was already running Windows, and I was more busy than normal. I decided to give ole Windows 7 a try again. I’ve used it, not hated it, and generally ignored it. I grabbed my usual program suites and was off to the races in less than an hour. I had forgotten the vast array of available software that I did not get on a Linux or even Mac platform. Skype on Mac is pretty good, but the Linux version is a steaming pile, and both seem to lag a fair amount behind Skype on Windows. As Skype is one of my major methods of production communication, this was a big check in the plus column for Windows. After setting up cygwin  (I need grep, it’s what I do), Putty, Winscp, Chrome, Firefox, gvim, Dropbox, Evernote (way better on Windows), 7-zip, Truecrypt, GIMP, LibreOffice, python, Strawberry Perl (where did this come from? Awesomeland?), pidgin, pidgin-otr, and a few tweaks to my command setup, I was completely back in business. The new ways Windows shows off multiple windows is much better than how it used to be. I still haven’t setup any multiple desktops or window groups, but I’m hopeful that won’t be too hard. After this I found there are a lot of FOSS packages out there for Windows.

I spent some time getting cygwin opensshd to allow me to remotely connect via a secure bash terminal. In the end this was actually fairly simple, but did not seem to be well documented anywhere I could find. I vow to make a post with big pictures titled “Step by step cygwin openssh sshd servers howto”. Now, I can remote into my Windows boxes via ssh with public key authentication and run both bash and Windows commands from the cygwin shell.

One of the most exciting things about coming back to Windows is Microsoft PowerShell. I follow a few people on Twitter who are always posting cool PowerShell scripts, and I wished I had access to this new, exciting, tool. I hope to soon have ssh->bash/cmd/powershell to all of my windows boxes. I admit I really do run a few Windows servers, but only because I have to.

So, with a deep sigh of parting, I have to say “Goodbye Linux on my desktop, you were awesome, and I believe you are still so. I hope to come back someday.”. At the same time “Helllloooooo Windows, what’s up you sexy devil? When did you get all grown up? New abilities? A *real* shell? SQL like data access in your shell? Open source programs? Let’s get it on!”