[Discuss] Dealing with Windows 10 after 15 years away

[sweetser at alum.mit.edu (Doug)]

Hi:

Who knows where technology companies are going to be in a year. For the
last 15 years I have only used macs that connect to Linux machines. I
thought it would be wise to buy a nuc and familiarize myself with windows
10.

For ~$900 I got a 10th gen i5 with 32 Gb of RAM and a 1 Tb SSD. I have been
able to install all the browsers (Edge was already there, Firefox, Chrome,
Opera). For programming, I have taken a liking to Visual Studio Code which
of course works well on such a machine. Anaconda was added to deal with
python, my favorite language. Davinci Resolve is a professional-level video
editing software and was trivial to install. I have installed Docker, so
could get Linux working here.

I installed Audacity to do some sound work. When I went to save it, I could
see the roots of Windows in the C: and D: devices. After I saved a file, I
actually lost its location. Maddening.

My question for the group is this: if you prefer life in Unix but need to
use a Windows box, are there a few programs you find are necessary to stay
sane in a Windows environment?

>From long ago, I recall using cygwin but do not know of its current state
or value. I saw one presentation on PowerShell, an idea to do deal with
"objects" instead of text, but again, do not know if people like to use
that for day-to-day work.

Doug