Linux is annoying the heck out of me again.
Why? Because I really want to make it work as my primary desktop environment. The reason I want to do this is because it’s either that, or Windows.
Given the choice, I’d be running OSX but I can’t get my copy of Leopard (legitimate!) to run on my laptop so I’m stuck with either a Windows or Linux variant. Lucky me.
I very much prefer a UNIX based system but I have certain needs that just aren’t fulfilled by any of the desktop OS’s out there, with the exception of OSX. Why is that?
Why isn’t there a plugin or wrapper or something for Thunderbird that will allow it to connect natively to an Exchange server? With EWS (Exchange Web Services) it seems like it should be a fairly simple thing. Evolution does it (but Evolution is a flying turd), and Mail.app in Snow Leopard does it as well. But the one email client I actually enjoy has no signs of ever supporting such a thing. All I *really* care about is Calendar integration. The email part I can do with IMAP. That is so bloody annoying.
What is it about a UNIX environment that I so enjoy? Well, it begins with ksh, csh, or bash. I get along quite nicely with all three. I am also quite addicted to vi, or nowadays vim. Vim is my main weapon of choice. When coding in C, vim and Makefiles are all you really need. Right? These days I am lucky though because I get to write Ruby (more specifically, JRuby) code all day. Well, mostly. Sometimes I have to work with PL/SQL on Oracle. Those days are a bit like Arthur Dent and Thursdays.
I had been running Linux as my primary desktop for a good month point five before I finally threw in the towel. The catalyst seems to be a composition of things from slow and ugly java applications to extreme hackery just to log into the VPN and work unencumbered. Throw in a dab of email issues with a pinch of Microsoft Marketing and you have me back on Windows. Windows 7.
Yep. I gave up again. I’m certainly capable of making it work but it takes so much out of me that I just don’t feel the desire to do so. So I installed Windows 7.
Windows 7. My only real hatred for you is CMD.EXE. Oh how I hate thee. And Powershell, while it may be powerful, is just too much for my aging brain to deal with right now. Luckily there is a well known cure for that. And it isn’t Cygwin. MSYS 1.0 with TDM MinGW mixed with Console2 and we are ready to rock.
I hope.