you can keep your iPhone

[lo5an]

I, personally, want an OpenMoko phone. What do you want to be it already runs But emacs? (speaking of which, I found a utility that gives you emacs keybindings in pretty much every Windows application... But then, I'm weird. I just picked a web based address book tool because of the export tools it provides... "Sure, features are nice... but what's

Comments

[reify]

I just got done with setting up my new XP desktop at work. It's not a bad environment once you know how to run it; in many ways it works better than the Mac.

May I suggest:

- cygwin, full install
- put startxwin in your Startup folder so you always have an X server running.
- Process Explorer. It's top on steroids.
- batch wrapper script to start up an xterm session. Name it "x - xtermwhatever" and drop it in Start Menu. Keep your frequent apps in there with unique leading characters and clean out the unused items, and then you have really quick Ctrl-Esc,x access to them. It's almost like being in emacs! A properly-configured start menu still works better for me than the Mac interface.
- winmerge! I just discovered this a couple months ago and it rocks.
- Oracle XE. It's free as in beer.
- TextPad or EditPlus as the main text editor, with a unique leading T in the Start Menu

- Don't run as Admin. Use the equivalent of sudo scripts to pop up DOS prompts and Windows Explorer windows with root priveleges:

:: admin_explorer.bat

[krieg_hund]

Office 2007 has a demo version that'll run until September. Not much of an exit strategy, though.

Open office is freeware. That's a bit better exit strategy.
I don't know if you tried it and don't like it, but it works for my needs.

[lo5an]

Yeah, I <3 OO.org. I used to use it for most of my MS Office related needs, back before I jumped on the Mac bandwagon.

[reify]

It's been a few years since I've used it on Windows. Tried it on Mac, including the Mac-specific build, but it was just too clunky; its X Windows bits didn't fit well with OS X. And I've turned into kind of a prima donna about how smoothly my software works.

They're more focused on Windows; it's probably pretty usable over there.

[lo5an]

I've got cygwin, and I'll have to get X set up. I haven't quite needed it yet, but I probably will.

Process Explorer looks cool. Microsoft seems to maybe be heading toward actually providing a more complete operating environment.

I'll have to check out winmerge.

For db, so far I'm sticking with postgreSQL and mySQL. The windows ports seem OK, from what I've heard.

For text editors, you know how I roll: an OS is just a tool for running emacsI'll definitely have to set up something sudoish. My account is an admin user now, but I know this is to be avoided

[lo5an]

It's the IT equivalent of "need to know" :-)

The idea is that when you're doing something with your computer, you should do it with the least set of privileges possible. This can prevent both accidental and malicious damage to the system.

Say, for instance, that you're checking your email and you get an attachment that is infected with some malware that will try to install itself on your computer. You don't need admin privileges to read your email, or look at the attachment, and not having them makes it harder for the malware to install itself.

This idea is sometimes called the Principle of Least Privileges and even Microsoft pretty much recommends it. In the *nix world, its pretty much the default setup.