Update – Doom, Windows, and More

DOOM!  It’s been about six months since I’ve posted anything.  I don’t really have any excuses, it’s more laziness than anything else.

I am running Windows on my main machine right now.  I don’t really have an excuse, per se, but I have reasoning.  Half of the reason I am running Windows again is the releases of Fallout 4, and then DOOM.  Both are fantastic games…and I wanted to experience them in all of their glory on my 27″ 1440p monitor.  And boy was it worth it.

The other half of the reason is the fact that I’m starting to get into photography.  There are a log of great FOSS alternatives out there, but nothing really seems to hold a candle to Lightroom.  There are products that are better, or have better features, I’m sure.  But the vast amount of support available for LR users – even just Googling around – is, well, vast.  And sadly, LR leaves me with two options – Windows or Mac.  I have a MacBook pro, which runs it nicely, but has a smaller screen.  I much prefer to tweak photos on the large screen…so Windows it is.

I started to feel guilty for a while, but then I realized I didn’t have to.  You don’t have to be some zealous fanatic to appreciate and enjoy Linux.  You don’t have to have a complete hatred for Windows or remove it totally from your life.  It makes it easier to learn Linux, sure, because while you don’t have any Windows installations you essentially have no alternatives.  But do I really need to completely remove it from my life?

Sure, there are things I don’t like about Windows.  Especially Windows 10.  Like the updates.  Microsoft is getting sneakier and sneakier in the way that they push out updates.  Definitely not a fan – but I’ll be honest, it doesn’t affect me much, since I’m already on W10.  It mainly affects those that are still using W7/W8/W8.1.  They’re sneaking the software onto the machine and making it harder and harder to not update to Windows 10.  And I agree with many that that isn’t right…I prefer to have more control over my own computer.  But, I also acknowledge that there is still a wide variety of software and games that you need Windows for.  At least to make things easy.  Sure, I could have installed an older, 32-bit version of Lightroom via Wine on my Fedora box (which is presently not a Fedora box).  Sure, I probably could’ve waited on playing DOOM or Fallout 4 until folks (maybe) figured out how to run it well in Wine.  But why should I have to?

Stuck!

So that leaves me where I am now.  My Thinkpad is on W10 now, too, because I also use it for Lightroom.  So that’s my two main machines running Windows.  Something I didn’t think I would say something like 6 months ago.  But that’s not all – I have other machines.  I have my older (2011) main machine on Fedora.  I have an HTPC that I built running CEntOS, just as an experiment before I sell it.  I have a Raspberry Pi running Raspbian.  I have a pfsense box and a freenas machine that are both based on BSD.  I have the older MacBook pro.  And soon, I’ll be receiving an older 24-inch iMac returned from my father, who was using it for a while.  So really, Windows is on the minority of my machines.  And I have beaten FO4 and DOOM…so maybe I’ll put Fedora back on the main machine, using the iMac for photo work.

Best case scenario, I would get one of those sweet new 27-inch 5K iMacs and use it for photo work…make everything else Linux across the board.  Maybe someday.