So how has my user experience been. Well I've been using Linux OSes for a number of year's mostly as server's, so I'm used to it, I'm also in love with the Console! :)
So it hasn't been that bad of a change. I have started to use more and more the console and bash script's now that I am a full time user. But other than that not much of my daily work and life have changed.
I must say though I am never in my life going back to the worst OS on this planet called Window's. I have been redeemed you could say and I love Ubuntu! It just makes life so much easier, an app make's problem's, great, let's drop into console and kill it! :)
So what have I been using in my Ubu Experience. Guake for my console, I love being able to hit F12 on my keyboard, which I'm using all the time anyways since I'm a programmer, and see my lovely little console dropdown. It's so quick and painless. I use to use Yakuake, but it, like KDE, was a bit bloated, so once I found Guake OMG! What a relief it is. Sure there's a way in Window's to use Console2 and AutoHotkey to do the same thing, but it's a bit bloated also. Plus the Microsoft's CMD is worthless! I can't do anything there.
It makes my life so much easier, a server has a problem, great, I F12 SSH to the server real quick using my pre-installed key's and fix. Exit out and F12 to get back to work! It's wonderful, why didn't I do this sooner.
So Guake I use, I use LibreOffice since I hate Microsoft, have since Word 6!!! Just kept getting worse and worse, heck even in window's I never made the upgrade from office 2000 to anything else :) ha ha
When I was still a window's user I switched about a year ago to using Mutt for my email, both gmail and Google App's for my business email. Though Cygwin's version of mutt is kind of old and to compile the newest version it's a pain! I got by, I used it during the day instead of thunderbird to save memory and resources. I could quickly check email, erase and go back to work. Couldn't do much else though.
Now I am fully MUTT compliant!! People believe me you switch to Mutt you will love Email again! Now an email notification comes in, like just now did, I F12 to my terminal (which consequently has mutt already open and ready), find the message and done.....Consequently so everyone reading know's, I just dropped out, found the new email (it was spam), erased it and came back in less time than it took me to write this sentence! ;)
Life is great using the keyboard, everything is one letter away! Now that I am in Ubu I have full access to the latest mutt. So I can even write my email's in it! I have Goobook installed which allow's me full access to query my Google contact's while writing an email in Mutt. So I drop into mutt, press "r" on the keyboard, type 3 letter's of the person's name (like in Thunderbird), hit
I don't ever write email's in HTML so it's no problem. I am a web developer, so as most of us agree HTML is meant for the WEB, not email's. Email is text, period! You want to write HTML make a web page. I have one client who actually write's their email's in Word, then hit's send from it! Word then send's with all it's HTML and personal HTML junk through Outlook! What a mess when I get email's. Word is for writing letter's people, not sending email ;)
I hate HTML email's, with a passion. This is why I use mutt, I have yet to find a way to get Mutt to filter HTML out of email's though, there's still hope ;). If I ever wanted to see that HTML crap I could make a key macro to open it in a browser, but why! I hate HTML in email's, hence I love Mutt! :)
So what else has changed you ask? Well I use grep, find and sed a lot more than before. I use to use them on server problem's a lot, but since window's didn't have them and getting them to work with cygwin at times was a bit of a hassle, I never did. Now that I am full time Ubu I use them all the time and don't know how I lived without them in web development. I am currently re-doing a site for a customer, there was a lot of problem's in the code and hard to find at times. No problem, just GREP it! :)
Once found if there are a lot to replace either use "replace" or "sed". Took minutes what before would take me a lot lot longer.
I am also using Ubuntu One Cloud now. Yes of course I could of used Dropbox in Window's, but the problem with that is that a lot of program's store their crap in so many different place's on Window's that it's hard to find junk. In Ubu it's all in my Home! :)
So I have synced between my Work PC and laptop my Mutt profile and everything mutt related, my SQLYog profile, my filezilla profile, my putty profile, liferea profile, and my Geany editor profile. That way what ever change I make while working when I get to the laptop it's there just as if I was on the other! I also have my project folder and all my NetBeans project's synced.
So life is so much easier! See like the putty stuff I couldn't sync using dropbox on Window's since putty store's all it's info in the stupid registry in Window's. So it never would have worked as good.
So in short, it's been a bit more than a month, and I am loving it! I am in love with the console and wish I could switch to using Lynx as my web browser ha ha ha
I recommend this switch to most everyone!
