Tuesday, January 09, 2007

I tried, I really did

Linux. Gone. Buggar.

I had to revert back to Windows on my dev pc. I just couldn't get the Ipw3945 wireless drivers to work. I tried everything, and read everything - including the 25 odd page forum topic in Gentoo forums.

So back to Windows it is. Luckily I am now doing dev in VMWare so it was easy as pie to get running again.

Notes from the experience:

- Check you hardware against Linux before you install, although if I had it still would have said the Intel Wireless should work
- Virtual Machines rock. If you aren't developing in VM's then you should. My guest OS is only Windows 2000 which means don't need that much memory on the guest to make it run well. I have 2gb on my dev pc which I think about right.
- Without scientific quantifiable data to back me up, Linux is much faster at surfing the net than Windows. I don't know if this has anything to do with the TCP/IP stack on Windows or what, but pages load so much quicker in Linux. Under Win the page seems to sit there for a second before doing anything whereas in Linux it is pretty much instantaneous.

I guess for all it's issues, Windows has made the Computing experience very easy. Biggy ups to MS for that at least.

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