Build something even an idiot will use and only an idiot will use it etc.
I’m still on Windows 7 at work, but I find that annoying enough. It’s one of the things that made me decide to check out Linux on my home computers. I wanted to feel like a grown up again.
Unfortunately, given Meltdown and Spectre, both Windows 7 and Linux are currently nogo areas for me for things like online banking and payments. I’m (a) not convinced that W7 will be patched in a timely fashion and in fact given the reported problems of both Microsoft and Intel, (b) not 100% convinced that either W7 or most Linuxes will be properly patched at all. My IRL middle name is “Paranoid”, admittedly. For W10 it’s a toss up between possibly better security and certainly more slurp, but at the moment it’s really the only game in town.
I have an old Chromebook which has an ARM cpu so ancient it lacks speculative execution, and given Google’s frequent updates that’s what I’m using for everything that needs to be secure.
My current plan is to wait till the end of this year when the new CPUs are out and the prices have dropped a little (!) and then make a decision between W10 and Ubuntu LTS.
I keep at least one Linux box at home, but I just never enjoy working on it.
Just like the MBP I forced myself to use at work for 6 months.
Could I do my job? Yes.
Was I as productive? Not particularly.
Did I enjoy the ‘OSX Experience’? Hell, no.
I like Windows 10. What changes to the interface come along only help me keep my mental accuity sharp. Now with that said, if appwiz.cpl ever stops bringing up the interface to uninstall application, that may be a step to far.
I do! I run Ubuntu LTS with a Cairo menu, and I love it – especially the extended desktop. I’ve got my little Compuz flourishes and I’ve got all my favourite apps at the ready and I don’t work around much at all.
At work they have everything very clamped down, so there’s no tweaking to get the experience you want out of Windoze. You better like the defaults, 'cos there’s no changing them.
To me that’s the key though: there is no one OS to rule them all, no matter how much MS thought they we going to get a monopoly or Mac thought they were making computers for the rest of us (they weren’t).
That is one thing they finally added with win10 that may make you love it.
I try to be a kindler, gentler BOFH so I don’t lock down User workstations too terribly. Generic and production line machines are locked down though.
I jump around machines and reimage so often I am perfectly happy with Win Defaults (ok…I set a few defaults to be more in line with what I want…)