Starting a new system from scratch

Sun, 24 Feb 2019 00:00:00 -0500

Table of Contents

Today, 24 Februry 89 (2019 CE) I am starting a new system, completely from scratch.

I am finally confident in adopting Windows 10 as my chosen OS, especially because of WSL.

Why Windows

In the end, I chose Windows 10 because, all considered, is the least worst option.

Windows 10 now offers everything a sysadmin and developer needs. He will find in Windows a tool that, right now, is as good as it gets.

Why not macOS, Linux, FreeBSD

Unfortunately macOS became driven by over-simplification. Simplicity is best, but too simple is not good. We need to have maximum flexibility with the systems we work with. I do not find useful when the underlying OS tries hard to hide complexity at the expense of killing flexibility and introspection.

I did not choose Linux becasue I find too many factors in it quite disagreable, from ego-centric personalities, unhealthy bazaar-like development which led to unsavory design choices, overall uwholesome vibration.

I find the GPL an expression of stark scientism and ignorance. I do not mind using GPL tools, until I find better ones, including of course Emacs.

I appreciate Linux systems for having shaken and pushed Microsoft to improve and adapt, by offering WSL. With WSL, I thankfully do not need Linux anymore, as Windows offer everything that Linux has, only more.

I did not choose FreeBSD becasue in its drive to be liked more and more, it has become another Linux. Unlike Windows, FreeBSD does not have enough solidity to survive the merge.

Why not illumos/OmniOS

I did not choose my overall favourite OS, illumos, because for now it does not have enough desktop support. Illumos remains and probably will remain for a very long time the best server OS.

Considerations for initial setup

I set up my home directory as c:/home to protect work from unrequested intrusions from other apps.

“home” is enough, as I have no users differentiation. I always use single-user systems.
I am keeping a log with all my notes on the way, growing bottom up (last entry on top).
I am also trying to keep only one file for everything, exploiting org-mode tags and properties. Let us see how far that will carry us.
I am also starting from scratch all init files, including emacs and zsh, tmux etc.
c:/home will be under version control (excluding large binary files).

meta on priyadarshan.org

Starting a new system from scratch

Why Windows

Why not macOS, Linux, FreeBSD

Why not illumos/OmniOS

Considerations for initial setup