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As some of you may know, I switched jobs in February. I left Accenture after almost 3 years there as a software architect and team leader. I'm now working at a small consulting firm, Enerminds, as a Java and C++ developer. The interesting thing about it is that I was offered to use Linux as my main desktop. After almost 13 years in IT, it's the first time I'm using it as my main desktop at work, and it has been an awesome experience.

First, the bad

Everyone else is using Windows, so there are situations and applications that I can only access from a Windows computer. I've setup a XP VM with VirtualBox. I had forgot how painful it was to install it, and I had to install both an XP and 2003 server. Also, they have a USB HP printer connected to the network via a dongle which is only compatible with Windows, so I can't print from Linux. Also, the development environments were not prepared for Linux, so I had to spend a couple of weeks tweaking them to make them work. Even if most of it is Java and C++, there were some hiccups, like the filenames being case-insensitive, so I had to case them properly all over the repository. And, oh yes, I get a lot of "Oh, right, you are running Linux. Can you do this with it?". "Yes, I can, and a lot more".

The good

Once the dev environment was fixed, it runs like a dream, and I feel I can do a lot more. I have the upper hand because the servers are running Ubuntu, so connecting to them couldn't be easier. You wanna edit some files on the server? Just open Kate and use the fish KIO part. Merge some branches? KDiff3 is the best for that, even remotely. Start some X application remotely? Yep, just ssh -X. Checkout how some of the VMs are running? Done.

Java is very easy to setup, and the IDE would install almost instantly (I had to install it manually, but more on that later). Tomcat (manual install) was super easy to get started with. And then on the C++ side, these guys have been modifying the files, then compiling on the server, modified the files, compiled again, test, lather, rinse, repeat. They didn't have a local environment to debug and test the C++ server. I can do that on my desktop, and very easily.

And on top of that, my desktop is the best looking, coolest one of the whole office, even when the hardware is outdated compared to the rest. Having 2GB of RAM helps, though. I know.

It has been a really pleasant experience, and one that only reinforces my belief in the technical superiority of Free Software. It Just Works, and I can do lots more with it.