Out the window

I've been very satisfied with the beta and release candidates of Windows 7 but the lifetime of the (free) RC is rapidly coming to an end and I had to consider my options as it had been the OS on my main laptop for the past year.

Except for one machine in London (mostly my tv and file archiver) all my other machines (up to 10 in regular use, including servers and notebook) all run on Linux or FreeBSD or Solaris, so the question under review was "do I actually *need* Windows?

So I made a list of the software I use. Much of it is FLOSS (Free, Libre, Open Source Software) or other 'free' stuff. Only a few programs are paid-for-in-hard-cash (such as my font tools).

The FLOSS stuff is nearly all cross-platform, so that was OK. The 'free' stuff is mostly available on other platforms, so might be OK. The paid-for stuff could either be replaced, chucked, or run under Wine if on Linux.

So I thought a little more … and scrapped Windows. Loved it and left it!

This post was just written on a laptop now running Ubuntu 9.10 with the 2.6.31-19 Linux Kernel and Gnome 2.28.1