Rambles and Riff Raff vol. 5
I am seriously time constrained this days. I promise a good post later today or tomorrow (read that: tomorrow).
In the time being the infamous unordered list of random thoughts with no connection with reality whatsoever.
- Being having musings about crisis and leadership lately. Discussed some of that with "da Boss". Food for post. Not right now, but expect it soon.
- I have hosed my system. Rendered it unusable. IT was of no help, so I did what any nerd would do. Grabbed a copy of windows 7 beta and installed it. Corporate IT should be pissed if they find out. But let's just keep it a secret for the time being. (more first impressions on Windows 7 after the end of the list)
- I am very distracted. The fact that I might become a parent any time now might have a lot to do with that. Lots of doctor appointments and stuff like that.
- Starting to feel excitement and inspiration in relation with work again. I have one person to thank. He knows who he is. He thinks he is no good at motivation. I say BS.
- I have written 5 drafts in the past 2 days. Lots of good "starting ideas", but I'm procrastinating on giving those posts the tie and attention they require.
Windows 7 on my T60p
So... what has this linux-evangelist-wannabe have to say about with Windows 7?
I'll be doomed, but I like what I see. It is still not there (it is a beta after all), but it is a good improvement from Vista and from XP. I have encountered some bugs and quircks and there are some behaviours that one should get the choice to remove alltogether (for instance all the confirmations you get when installing software!). But the OS behaves quite well, quite stable and fairly nice.
I have also noticed some stuff which might be inspired on things I've seen on Linux for a long time (look and feel, placement of user profiles, application data).
Finally I also got rid of Lotus Notes 7 and installed 8.5 beta. That is also a fairly good improvement that will make my life easier.
The only memory hog left on my system is TweetDeck. 250MB on Ram for a program that retrieves images and texts from the web is unacceptable.
Microsoft doing things the Linux way?
After reading this article on CrunchGear and particularly after gazing this inevitably quoted paragraph:
Still, it seems that MS has changed up the strategy for putting things together, emphasizing smaller teams with less higher-up input. Teams called “Triads” — one developer, one tester, and one program manager — chisel away at problems and work independently. The poster says this leads to a more integrated approach to creating a feature, and more transparency in management means decisions can be made in good time with enough visibility for the teams to accommodate them.
I can't help but wonder if the big Redmond Company is not trying to replicate the Open source way of doing things.
The old Cathedral model might be gone. And it might of took Vista for some companies to realize that Open Source and transparent development cycles are not a dreaded enemy but rather smart ways to tackle complex projects.
Please don't see this post as a "Windoze sucks, linux rulz" kind of thing. I'm keen to Linux, true enough, but I make this point as a mere observation of what could put Microsoft back into track.
My Wishlist for Windows 7:
- Don't make it a process hog.
(end of list)