Windows

Windows

I hate Windows. I really do. Every time I'm forced to use it or I'm asked ("because you know about computers") to explain to someone why something is so broken, I get more and more frustrated.

Yet... I'm oddly drawn to it. This is what controls the computer market, after all. If we were still in the crash-prone dark ages of the Windows 9x series I'd never use Windows at all, but 2000 was actually pretty stable.

Instead, I sometimes make my software run in Windows. Sometimes I even write Windows software, just to keep my mind fresh with how Windows works.

Recommendations

There's so much software out there, it's hard to find the useful bits. So here's a cheat sheet:

• Utilities
  • Trillian [freeware version available] lets you instant message on many systems simultaneously without ads.
  • PuTTY [MIT license] for your SSH needs. Check out Pageant, the SSH agent, so you don't have to retype your passwords over and over.
• Development
  • Tortoise CVS [GPL] is a CVS system that integrates with the Windows shell. It uses a PuTTY utility for its SSH access so you can use the same Pageant to keep your workplace repetition-free.
  • ExamDiff [freeware] is a diff utility to use with Tortoise CVS.
• NSIS [open source licence] is the installer system made by the people who made WinAMP, though InnoSetup [open source, too] looks a bit more professional.

I have downloads for some of those in download/ in case the sites go away.