If you’ve read my other posts, you’ll know that I’m a converted avid linux (power) user since a few years now. Personally, I thought Windows 8 was great step for microsoft. They were bold and had the guts to take the chance and bring something really different at a time where people thought that the tablets were gonna replace the desktop. That didn’t happen, people complained for just about everything with the OS. When they tried a step back with 8.1, they had serious issues with the platform. Well, you cannot please everybody. Skipping Windows 9 to Windows 10, Microsoft really came back in force with its desktop enhanced environment with the proper twists in functionalities to take full advantage of the touch screen and not mimick a tablet. Honestly, I think the tablet era will go as quickly as it gain popularity and will become a niche market.
For my part, I customized my Windows 10 Surface Pro (first gen) to fit my work style of linux with windows. (At work, I have a desktop with Linux running Windows 7 in a virtual box.). First thing was to install Chrome. Let’s be honest, Microsoft Edge is way behind in functionalities and IE is just for backward compatibility for older websites. Edge is clean and has potentials, but no way near what Chrome offers today. Cortana is not available in my region and honestly I don’t really care. I get the idea of talking to your device to get faster answers but I still believe that google has a better search engine and if I’m really in a hurry, I’ll grab my phone, not boot my PC. I can type faster on my desktop than wait for the text conversion and search. I also removed the search bar all together. I can’t find the use for it. I know where I keep my stuff (Documents) and Google is my default web page, why then do I need a search bar? The adresse bar (tool bar) is the really useful one. You can executes command directly in the bar without the “right click bottom left corner and Execute”. Specially when your Windows stops responding (still happens, no surprise, no complaints).. « shutdown /s ». Command lines are even better with touch screen, you don’t need to find your cursor anymore and you can go much faster when you know what to execute. The trick is to have your executables in %PATH% (hasn’t changed since the first version of Windows). So, I added a folder to my %path% which includes putty, keepass and encfs (so far). You can also execute «outlook», «lync», and any other shortcut you have on your desktop in the address bar and it will also find it. I learned some new commands with putty which makes my work even better. Use «putty -load profile” to connect to a set profile in putty, use Xming to get remote linux apps to run on your Windows machine and use key auth method to make your ssh connexions more secure and easy. Keeping my files safe and accessible is another post I’ll write about soon, the cloud is great but I only trust what I encrypt (including my keys). Lately I switched from OneNote to Google Keep. Both have great but different potentials, With the integrated OneNote client in Windows 10, I have to consider the possibility of using and managing both. OneNote would be for projects and documentations, while Google Keep would be for notes and reminders.
In summary, I’m loving my Surface Pro now more than I did 3 years ago when I first got it. I just wish the battery would last longer. Here are some screen shots (Windows + Volume Down).
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
