It's time for something fun

So, a few years ago I had this rule that about every 6 months I would use a version of Linux for a few weeks just to see how it had progressed and compare that to Windows.  I can't really recall when I stopped but I do remember that I really enjoyed having a better understanding of other systems.  I think it's time to do it again.  However, this time I won't be using Linux.

I have access to both Windows 7 and Macs.  I've been a Windows developer for a long time but with the improvements made in virtual machine solutions I've started doing most of my development work in vms.  I find it refreshing to keep all my development work sandboxed in a system that I can easily take and rollback snapshots as needed.  I recently ran some winsat checks on my native box (a Core i7 rig with 8gigs DDR3 memory) and a virtual machine configured to use all 8 cpus.  The results were nearly identical with the virtual machine turning in 95% performance on cpu tests and beating the host system in disk tests (the vm was using a 80gig file as a disk).

So, since the VM is giving me enough performance to do my work I am really free to use whatever I like as a host system.  So, here I am preparing to embark on a fun adventure.

I"m going to use Snow Leopard (in 64 bit mode) for 30 days while doing my Windows work in a VM.  I don't intend to run back to Windows for anything during that time as I really want to force myself to use OS/X.  During this time I'll blog frequently about issues I'm facing, things I like, things I don't like, and work arounds I've found.

So, to get started here's what my day normally looks like on the computer.

• Lots of development work on Windows (Visual Studio 2008 and 2010)


• IRC/Skype chatting with friends and co-workers


• Email with co-workers


• Using Google calendar to manage my day to day activities


• Editing Word/Excel/Powerpoint documents (these are more rare these days but they do happen)


• Watching recorded tv shows from my Media Center HTPC


• Watching shows from NetFlix and Hulu


• Listening to music from Pandora, Slacker, Sky.FM, and personal music collection


• Blog reading/writing


• Facebook and twitter'ing

Well, wish me luck.