I wonder if the last 6 - 7 years of Linux ( almost 5 of that exclusively Linux ) has taken away some of the memories of pain that we all went through in the Windows years. Just the other day I saw someone going through an hour long session of suffering with Windows Vista, trying to get the wireless working. This is in his own office, somewhere he goes everyday, on a laptop he has had for three months. And it sort of struck me how mad things used to be, and brought back a few memories - which I then went onto share with him and his coworkers. Not amused they were. Even more so, not amused when my laptop just worked.
So why am I blogging this ? Well, in Jan this year I had to write down things that I had done over the years - a sort of technologies that I am working on and something I remember from the past, all a part of some paperwork thing I had to get sorted out with the Home Office here in the UK. I came across that bit of paper again today - its quite funny how things from the last 3 - 4 years are very clear and vivid ( as they would be ), and also quite diverse. Then there is this dark period for a few years, haunted by 'sqlserver' and 'visualstudio'. That is *all* I could put down for that 3 year period, and again before that in the last 90's there is a nice long list of very interesting things that I was doing - almost all on Linux.
One bit of info that was on my profile that I had submitted to the Home Office in 2001 was 'I enjoy programming'. Which was true, a the time. The years from 2002 to 2004 of the intensive coding for the windows platform changed much of that - I gave up on coding completely for a long time. Its only when I got into python later in 2005 that I started to get back into this, and really started enjoying it again. Even assembly, something I did lots of in the mid 90's, was something I was again doing in 2006. Have again given up on it, there are way too many things going on to really be able to sit back and spend the days required to write meaningful code in assembly these days.
Every now and again I come across someone struggling in Windows with a task that really should be trivial for an OS and platform that has been around for so long, been developed for and on, for so long and something that has such a wide user base. And with the horror memories it brings back it also does one more thing for me. It makes me realise that while Linux might not be perfect and while it might be something that needs a bit of tech skill and a moderately wired mindset to do complex tasks in Linux - for the people it works, it works. And the number of people it works for, is always increasing.
go Linux!
- KB
I fully agree - I have been exclusively *nix\linux on my lappy for nearly 10 years and I got a business laptop that ran windows, I am quite depressed when I can't bring my personal laptop (packing constraints) because getting hooked up to wireless and doing what I want is worlds easier when I am travelling with my linux laptop. The windows history I have truly is a painful period that I hadn't realized, nor remembered/reflected upon until this post......excellent points... 
Ah, as you know my experience has generally been the opposite on Linux. Next time you see that person, ask him to try Win7. :) 
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