Down the Free software high-way, how has it paid out?
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012I’ve been down the free software highway for about 2 years (atleast according to the date of the last backup of windows-stuff), and I figured I might share my experiences and what-not with the few people who still pop in here every now and then for a visit 
First of all, I have not been faithful to any single distribution (with the exception of the one I’m using now, which I’ve stuck by for it’s last two releases), but I’ve grown attached to and kept faithful to a couple of applications. I swear by LibreOffice, i refuse to use anything not webkit-based for web browsing (google chrome for regular browsing, luakit for some sites i need to keep open as single applications), and I tend to start looking for alternatives when sites i visit depend on flash.
I’ve found great replacements for most of my old windows software (who weren’t really rocking it in Windows 7 64bit anyways), and in many cases I can still run the windows software in Wine (a project that goes from clarity to clarity with the 1.3.X upgrades), for older software I can most of the time run it better in wine under linux than in windows xp-compatibility-mode in Windows 7.
Developing is a friggin dream when you’re not hogtied to how the manufacturer of your OS wants you to view the world. I have several version of PHP set up for web-development (one that always upgrades when my webhost does, one that keeps up with latest in the 5.X-branch, and a bleeding edge test version to play around with the latest goodies … even though it sometimes goes bang), not to mention several version of Python and fitting GUI-tools for desktop development.
Computing has become so fun again, I’ve even gotten around to playing a bunch of games. I constantly pitch in and get the newest Humble Bundle, but I’ve also been playing some of my favorite old windows games (and some of my favorite old DOS games …. yes … DOS games). Playing the GTA-series as well as Neverwinter Nights, Arcanum and a bunch of others (Like Quarantine and AMOK for DOS) better than they did in native mode is just … Well, computing the way it should be
I had to use a USB-dongle with a 3G-modem in it a while when my internet broke down, and while Windows-users might think they have a sweet deal with the drivers auto loading from the dongle and all, when I popped that dongle in the driver was already loaded. pin-code and BAM we were surfing again.
Computing is fun again! And I’m getting back to developing my own stuff again. Some good things will happen this year.
If any of this has gotten you curious, go check out Linux Mint, Ubuntu, PinguyOS, Fedora and OpenSUSE where you can download a bootable dvd and play around with while you contemplate if you too want to put the fun back into computing
Oh. And Happy Valentine! Celebrate it by doing something awesome with someone you love! I’m thinking of playing videogames with my daughter and sending money to a charity <3
