Well, as it turns out my linux adventure is on hold. I used Ubuntu for a least two whole weeks at work and I've discovered a few things that I don't like.
Since I mostly do java development, I really want to use Eclipse. Eclipse on windows is very easy for me. I've been using it for at least a year and half now. I got used to everything that was different from other IDEs and I liked it. On linux, it is a little bit different. My biggest complaint and what would likely keep me from using it further on linux is that the user interface has too much empty space. It feels like I can see much more code on my laptop in windows than in linux. That is the primary annoyance there. It sounds petty, but it is enough for me to reconsider using it. If I hadn't used the windows version, I'm sure that it would be fine.
The other aspect is that at work, we have to use smart cards to log in now. Linux users are excepted right now, so we don't have to login with smart cards, but we are totally locked out of email without the use of a windows box. That gets quite annoying too. I managed to get the card working in Firefox so that I could access work websites finally, but I'm still tempted with fiddling around instead of doing real work.
That turns out to be my biggest linux complaint. Its almost too open for me because I can't control myself and do work. Instead I feel compelled to figure how change this or update that. Why isn't this working? and Oh, I finally figured that out. I am keeping it aroung and trying to login once a week. I'll give it another try in a few weeks. Its just right now we have big deadlines and linux isn't platform we need to deliver. That sounds silly I suppose, but its just taking me a really long time to get happy with the way everything works. Since it is a work computer, that time investment is totally unjustified.
I'm going to try to stay mostly computer oriented here for now I think. We'll see how it goes.
