Ardent Meridian

Well, it’s been two and a half months since I started setting up my Linux environment for this project and in that time I needed to focus on actual productive work, rather than evaluating operating systems.  So in a few days I will return to that task.

The Linux setup sits on its dedicated drive in the same state I left it in.  Since starting on that I have not even had time to put Windows 7 on a disc and take that for a proper test drive on my primary hardware.  That will likely get added to the list of systems I evaluate, though based on using it on some secondary machines, while it really is what Vista should have been, it’s a useful if unnecessarily expensive upgrade.

More on this project in the near future.

This evening I began my installation of Linux for my operating system evaluation experiment.  For my non-desktop needs I typically use RedHat, though it is not something I would find especially desirable  as a desktop environment.

For this experiment I decided to give Ubuntu 9.04 a try.  I have used a variety of other Linux distributions over the years, and all have had their ups and downs.  Ubuntu seems to get the bulk of the desktop-centric press lately, and it is Debian-based (or at least derived) – something I have built from source in the past, so it seems a good candidate for my experiment.

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As a professional software engineer/architect I make frequent use of all three of today’s primary PC operating systems – Windows, OS X and Linux on a regular basis.

To this point, each of them has fulfilled a specific role, or been required for a particular purpose.  And, while I do categorize and view them differently, I have no religious preference for any of them.

They are facilitators, environments, for running other software and tools which I use in both my personal and professional life.

For a good while now I have been wondering just how well each might fulfill the role of my primary desktop operating system.

I do not, necessarily, believe there is one single environment that can meet all of the needs I currently have of my primary desktop, but I am interested in finding out which might be the most generally applicable and, perhaps, most pleasurable to work with.

I spend a great deal of time working at my computer, so if there are things I can do that make the experience either more productive, or more enjoyable, then they are worth evaluating in a frank and honest manner.

That is the purpose of this experiment; to spend a week each with Windows, OS X and Linux as my primary desktop operating system and see how well each works and what is good and bad about my experiences with each.

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