Well it’s been 2 weeks now with the new box and no Windows, a little different not using Windows for work but it hasn’t required any more effort. Some of the apps we used before for personal things, Quicken and iTunes, their are open source alternatives so we haven’t missed them yet. On the work side for the windows only apps I need, which are 2, they are on a server that can be accessed via tsclient. Their is one app I don’t have, Microsoft’s Communicator/Net Meeting, wihich is missed somewhat. We are not a company that traditionally communicates via chat so it’s use is still taking shape. I had hoped the web version was installed on the same server with the other apps but that is not the case. Maybe IT will get to that.

So far I’m pleased… except for the sound card taking a dive this morning. Lightning struck the power line outside the house which seems to have blown the integraded sound on the mobo. I never lost power and nothing else seems to have been affected so may have to scrounge a PCI one up. For these last 2 weeks I’ve also been using Evolution for mail, work and personal. I’ve switched back and forth between it and Thunderbird over the years but have never been able to stick with one or the other. It’s nice that both use mbox format for storing messages, makes copying that much easier. But I think it will be back to Thunderbird now and I’ll use the Lightning add on for Calendar functions.