NYCPHP Meetup

[Mitch Pirtle]

bpang at bpang.com wrote:

> As I'm sure I've expressed before, I've been using linux as my primary
> desktop for a couple of years and would say I'm 95% satisfied with it.
> 
> It's true that the "Office" functions are somewhat lacking and/or
> problematic, so I do keep a W2k machine here that I connect to with VNC
> (no extra monitors).
> 
> One of the stranger problems I end up having is that Mozilla works better
> than IE, so when I'm doing "tricky" front-end stuff, I have to
> modify/rewrite code to support the ailing browser.

I've been using linux exclusively on the desktop for at least 5 or 6 
years, and I've even forced my wife and children to accompany me on this 
bizarre journey.  For the most part, problems have been minimal (friends 
emailing jokes in Powerpoint(?!), lousy printer drivers, total lack of 
email virus infections).  I even got Internet Explorer running via Wine, 
so prototyping front-ends was not an issue and I got to experience the 
joy and wonder of a completely crippled application.

The thing that forced me to install a 'doze partition was Macromedia. 
As I got more and more involved in the front-end of application design, 
the more I needed to know how to create Flash and Director animation. So 
I do have to boot into XP, and hate it the entire time I am there - my 
cheapo AC'97 audio stinks up the house in Windows, but the ALSA driver 
sounds wonderful - but for the most part XP has pretty much caught up to 
Linux.  As soon as I can get decent virtual-desktop support, I will be 
happy.

(evil grin)

-- Mitch