As you might guess, I'm a big Unix fan. I grew up like so many others of my generation on the first home/micro computers (the Trash-80, Apple ][ ][+ ][c ][e and (uggh) III, PET, Atari 400, among others). I've also experienced the minis (VAXen and a PDP-11) and even a card-walloping monstrosity called an IBM 370. All things considered, given my age (26) I've used a huge variety of machine/OS combinations.
With this experience comes cynicism. I really haven't found a systems that makes me totally happy (but then again, who has?). However, UNIX seems to be the best so far. VMS tried really hard, but just wasn't quite there. I liked Apollo Domain/OS, but it's gone. I've touched the LISP machines, and while they have some really neat features (from a systems standpoint), they require far too much programming to be really useful. And I get annoyed with all the (). <smile> Macs are OK, but I miss the freedom of a command line. DOS is horrible, and competes with OS/360 and the other mainframe OSes for the award of Most Disgusting Thing Foistered on the Public. Windows is better, but I still can't stand the $!$@# interface.
Anyway, that leaves me with my love, UNIX. While there are way too many versions out there, all slightly different and not-so-trivial to port things to, it still is by far the most programmer-friendly, powerful, flexible, and stable OS available today. And, since it's not quite so simple to maintain, I'll have a job for the forseeable future.
I'm interested in various forms of Unix running on Intel-based platforms. I'd really rather not support Intel's de-facto monopoly on the desktop market, but until someone sells PowerPC boards at commodity pricing and availability, I guest I'm stuck.
Recently, with Digital's price reduction on Alpha chips, it is becoming increasingly attractive to run Linux on a generic Alpha system. Still a little pricy, but wow! What performance. Actually, now that Digital is looking to compete head-to-head with Intel for the WinNT market, prices for a fast Alpha should be about that of a Pentium Pro. Yipee!!!
Here's a sample of what I perfer to use:
I should be running a domain out of my house in the near future. For the moment, here's what I run stuff on at home: my unix stuff
UNIX rules. There is no other. Well, maybe Plan-9...
And for Micro$loth lovers, well....<reaching for my LART> This one's for you!
I REFUSE to use Micro$oft products as a general rule. They are (for the great majority) poorly planned, gratuitously large, over-hyped, slow, and technically mediocre, at best. For awhile, I thought that they might have something going when Windows NT came around, unfortunately not. While it's considerably better than and other form of Windoze, it suffers from several ANNOYING Microsoft tendencies.
That all said and done, I bow to reality and recognize that I really need to co-exist with Windows (in its many forms). Here are some pointers to things that I find useful in a mixed UNIX/Windows environment:
I'm still updating this page, so please bear with me!
