From: Jacob Quinn Shenker <jqshenker@...>
Date: 2005-11-22T09:05:48+09:00
Subject: Re: [OT] Trying to change my OS from Windows to Linux/Mac

Forgot to add:If you want *nix tools on a Windows box, cygwin is quite good. I usedit in my "transitioning" phase, so I could learn *nix while stillretaining the familiar yet ugly Windows desktop :)

On 11/21/05, Jacob Quinn Shenker <jqshenker@gmail.com> wrote:> I highly recommend Ubuntu for a laptop - almost all the time Stuff> Just Works. Wifi, audio, you name it. It's running great on my> thinkpad, and it has a good Ruby environment to boot (if you remember> to install an updated Ruby from a .deb or from source, the packaged> one it broken).>> Right now, I use Enlightenment 17 (from cvs), which both looks cool> and it quite resource-friendly. I lay out my environemt with 4 virtual> desktops, one for play, one for administiation (where I put all those> SSH sessions), one for development, and one extra ("just in case").> Each has an Eterm running screen, which often amounts to more than 12> bash processes running total. and I usually have two firefox window> up, each with between 10 and 20 tabs.>> I like to use a graphical environment becase I need to see the web> graphically (e.g. for web design, elinks just won't cut it ;-) and I> get pretty screen antialiasing and fonts. I really like seeing> multiple window at a time, and screen by itself (in text-mode) can't> provide that. That said, I very much prefer using text-based programs> for pretty much anything besides the web:> - irssi for IRC is awesome. All GUI clients give me bad-design hives.> It can be hacked to do various IM services as well... but who uses IM> anymore?! :)> - Mutt. "All mail clients suck, this one just sucks less." --> Somebody(sorry, forgot the name). I tend to think I sucks *quite a> bit* less ;-) Everything's customizable, you can use external programs> for various tasks (Vim, GPG, etc.) It's hooks feature simply provides> unparalleled flexibility.> - Vim. I've been using it for a while, and I really like it. Once you> get the basics, it's pretty easy. Fast, efficient, and powerful. I> haven't seriously learned Emacs, but if I get the time I'd really like> to, if only for comparison. I happen to prefer Vim's modes over Emacs'> arcane key sequences, though my mind is open to the Emacs way of> life...> - Eterm. I've been using it only just recently. The jury's still out> on this one, it has issues with ncurses and mutt, but I think it's> actually a font/encoding issue. Also, there are some pretty themes> available for it. Anyway, mrxvt is another terminal to check out, it's> very lightweight but has tabs too! (but with screen, that doesn't> matter as much to me) Konsole, as bloated as it is, I have to say does> an awesome job (I don't use KDE, alas). SHIFT-<arrow> to switch> between terminals is just *so* useful. I need to see if screen can do> that...>> Well. Hope you gleaned some useful information from that.>> Using Linux, and text-mode interfaces, and all the other things that> come with *nix is intimidating. But it's worth it. Really!>> Jacob>