Circa 1995, Windows for Workgroups was giving way to Windows95 where I was working at the time. My boss was compiling a Linux Kernel on a huge chunky so called laptop. I had no idea why he was doing that, as we were a Microsoft Shop, but it was very cool nevertheless. We had just deployed WindowNT 3.51 Domain Controller, rolling out new computers across Bexar County with my custom built Windows95 hard drive images. I had work to do, desktop computers and networks to troubleshoot and fix, I had zero time to compile a kernel and say, OK now what?
Circa 2000, new workplace at a Fortune 500 company in Round Rock Texas. I am a Win-Tel Systems Engineer working in Microsoft Shop for several more years, at a time when a Linux Team was formed within our organization, from there the early beginnings of Open Source software made its way into the Enterprise Production Datacenters. I moved into an Enterprise Storage Team, and I found out rather quickly that Linux-like skills were required, as all the storage platforms ran some form of Unix/Linux/BSD.
Open Source – SOHO @ Home Engineer.
Beginning in the fall of 1999, I began my Linux journey with a version of Red Hat that I bought at a local store in a 3-CD package. The installation was crude by comparison today. Driver support was minimal, much less try to use a printer, no USB, or anything other device than a SCSI attached peripheral. The internet was not yet full of newsgroups as an information source. I was on my own, hammering the keyboard trying to figure out how to use the so called terminal. As Linux matured, different distributions began to show up and a person had the freedom to pull them down, install and test run any OS. We are not talking Open Source Software yet, although some did exist, and was about as frayed on the ends as the OS it was installed upon.
The Microsoft Windows Hey Day!
Windows NT Workstation 4.0 was a pleasure to use, but it had its own lack of driver support problems. WindowXP, then Windows 7 were on my desktop. Both were absolutely solid. Windows 7 became my favorite desktop for many years. Windows 10 was a draconian first step of turning an OS into a data collection and advertising platform. Yes, I use Windows 10 today in my Office, and I am not at all excited about Windows 11. Win10/11 was the turning point to where I began to think about replacing a Windows desktop with a version of Linux and I am not quite ready to make that full change-over.
The Transition to fully Open Source:
If I could live without Microsoft Office (not the Cloud 365). I have a mostly paperless office and use an application called PaperPort to scan, organize and save documents into PDF format. Open Source Software does not offer anything like that in one simple application. I can create PDF files from the scanner, but the management and just overall cohesive experience is just not there in the Linux Desktop world, but I am still looking.
Microsoft Outlook is still on my desktop and I find that I am using it only for a dedicated personal email account that I have with an internet domain name. I have used Outlook since 1995 and my current version is 2016. I have mostly bloated PST files of very old emails attached to Outlook. I have test driven the Thunderbird email client, and have even migrated some PST files into it. Certainly cumbersome, but doable. Maybe…I could give up Outlook and may have to if MS forces full cloud accounts. I have many other emails accounts that are web based as well. It time to consider an overall strategy change, make the decision to become OS platform independent instead.
Exercise in Futility?
There are many examples of, ‘if I could just do this in Linux’ , from a desktop standpoint that keeps me just on the edge of a full conversion. Software that supposedly can run Windows Programs under Linux such as Wine 6.0, Bottles, Crossover, PlayOnLinux and others, promise to bring the full Microsoft Experience to Linux, but fall seriously short of doing so. Mainly due to MS closed source code is impossible to port to Linux. I also have other windows based programs that will never work under a Linux Emulator, ever. Good example of this are programs that require network access, such as a USB device, or even the network card itself. Its as if these emulated programs are sandboxed to the point of ‘why even bother’. Its Windows or nothing in that regard. Open Source software packages that offer a direct replacement for comparable Windows Apps are not as polished or feature rich, and even incompatible with file formats in some cases. Can they get the job done for free? Yes they can in most cases, but this whole issue is not about simply free of charge. Its now becoming Big Brother, data acquisition, force feeding ads you don’t want and even providing your personal data to the FBI.
Freedom at the Fingertips?
My Linux Journey has taken me places that I did not know about. For example, this blog that nobody will read. Everything about it is Open Source. The Word Press Web Application serving this content exists inside of a Linux Docker Container, and that container resides on a Linux server. That Linux Server is not a piece of hardware so to speak, but a virtual machine that runs on another Linux Server called Proxmox that provides the virtual environment for the rest of the stack to run on. The method of access to this Word Press instance is front ended by another Docker Container on a different Virtual Machine called NGINX Reverse Proxy. That sever provides the secure HTTPS encrypted layer of communication from your browser to this instance by you accessing the NGINX Proxy, through my firewall, then that proxy points to the Word Press Virtual Machine, returning the content back to you. The matter of Secure SSL Certificates used to Trust and Encrypt the HTTPS connection is provided to me by Let’s Encrypt, an organization that issues temporary certificates and are renewed periodically, securely. I have several other so called Micro Services that run within the Open Source Home Lab I have set up. All free of charge, but there is a cost to everything in life. In this case, time spent of learning how to assemble the software to do the job, and of course the hardware and network to provide the services. Its truly a fascinating world to explore and the more I do with it, the more I realize that a Microsoft Windows 11 desktop is no longer of interest to me.
I am learning that as my computing habits are evolving, that I will be able to transition to a secure open source platform on the desktop, eventually. My own stubbornness, resistance to change, liking what has always been on the desktop, has kept be from embracing a full change-over.
The freedom is truly at the fingertips. All it takes is making the fingers do the work….
