A few people have asked me this. At work we use a exchange server for email and collaboration and most systems I interact with are via a web browser or using published Windows shares across the corporate network. I choose not to use Windows on real hardware except for a netbook which I use for gotomeeting since I am lazy these days. I have not been able to get my headset which is a nice USB powered one working on VirtualBox reliably so that laptop runs Windows 7. Other than that, on real hardware I am Windows-free. Here is how i do things:
- Email and Collaboration – I have to interact on a daily basis with our exchange 2007 collaboration server. I do this on my android phone using the Work mail application. My Nexus One deals with the mail just fine. For desktop email, I have a choice. I can simply use Outlook Web Access (OWA) to do the mail thing. This works when I am on the road in poorly developed wifi zones like in some international airports I frequent. But for the most part, I do Outlook 2007 anywhere in a Virtual Windows 7 setup on VirtualBox. I can launch Outlook in VirtualBox and be connected much the same as with a real Windows 7 install. Difference is, I click to another virtual desktop and I have familiar territory and not the Windows 7 gooey and rich environment. For basic calendaring, I copy stuff that I get to gooogle calendar directly from my invites from exchange. I don’t accept invitations because most people that invite me to something can find my easily enough in the office. If someone asks me to initiate a exchange-based calendar invite I do it and invite people and then silently delete the original without notifying the attendees. Now that the calendar event is in my google calendar, I can deal with it on my Nexus One easier.
- Network Resources – You know the drill here. You need to visit \\somewindowsbox\share. This just works for me on Ubuntu and I can login to a AD based system with my domain credentials and get the share. No big effort here. I can copy and paste files between shares as well. I don’t need Windows 7 for this either.
- VPN from outside – We use a PPTP based server which requires authentication and encryption. I install the pptp-linux application and write a script that does it all. I have to adjust my default route because our office DNS is not right most of the time and I cannot reach systems in India or Singapore when I vpn in to the US office. So, instead, I vpn in to the Singapore vpn server which is kinder and nicer to me.
- Printing – Our printers are standard HP LaserJet printers. No big effort to set them up. For my VirtualBox guests, I either create a printer object direct to the printer or I share my printer on the Ubuntu system. Easy peasy. If I am in India, there are more Linux boxes per person than just anywhere else. So support for my usual stupid questions is easy to get. In Singapore, same applies. More Linux there.
So what are the necessary applications? What do I need to do all this? Well, I install smbfs and samba and sshfs as a few and they are all in the regular repositories. I install VirtualBox which is at their website and I install the repository for it in my ubuntu sources so updates are tracked. Then to share files, I add in Dropbox to Ubuntu which creates the workfiles I need across all my systems including my token Windows 7 netbook and shares them effortlessly. When this is done, I create the basic $HOME share in my /etc/samba/smb.conf which is already there but commented out. Then I add in the password I need for samba by doing “sudo smbpasswd -a myname”. Finally, I create a “H” drive on my Windows 7 Virtualbox guest that points to the directory where my work files are shared in Dropbox.
Pretty much at this point, I am productive. Its not seamless like it would be to just use Windows natively. But then again, its not the entire Windows experience which drives me crazy with all the “are you sure” visuals. Maybe I should just enable God mode on Windows 7. God mode on Ubuntu comes easier though with a “sudo” before a command. Truth be told, I am lazy and I have a script that does everything including setting up a new ubuntu desktop with the applications I need, a rather big application upgrade, and then restarting a few things. I still have to add updates because no OS every remains constant.
I have a much better computing experience with only running Windows 7 when I have to. I don’t miss all the malware, spyware, and “are you sure” messages. And my desire for computing laziness rules out. My family unit uses Ubuntu too for the most part. My wife is used to Ubuntu, Open Office, finding applications. She is a simple Open Office and Web user. She does not need all the gooey goodness of Windows or its rather irritating and frustrating parts of AV updates, malware scares, etc.
We’re all lazy here I fear.
