Programmer turns Switcher

In his blog, Pete Wright talks about his evolution as a programmer.

From a poorly-paid - not just a cliche in this instance - wage slave, to a more experienced world-wise programmer, he recounts how he moved up in the field.

His computes have changed too.

When he started out with Windows a decade and a half ago it was shiny and new.

And he knew it was not a fad, despite what his anachronistic corporate boss told him.

His latest post was written on a Macintosh while a PC under his desk was uninstalling MS-Windows so he could install Ubunu Linux on it.

It is always interesting to read what another program writes about the evolution of his career and how technology has changed over a lengthy period of time.

Strange new worlds, and programming languages...: Good bye Microsoft; Pete has now left the building!

I just saw a video of Xgl running on Ubuntu Linux over at YouTube.com.

I can see why he is changing out his O.S. on his old computer at the moment.

The demo was the closest thing I have seen to jaw dropping in a year or two, I think.

Not only does it support 3D graphics and alpha transparency - something one operating system I know of will not even be able to do until next year.

It also supports physics.

That is to say, objects bend in 2 or 3 dimensions as you drag them. The faster you drag them, the more they bend. It is as if someone modeled the window as a 3D mesh.

It is not bad!!

Anyway, seeing Pete's post about switching to Mac plus Ubuntu Linux - on the tails of seeing that video of the Ubuntu desktop being demonstrated, let us just say I got what he was saying.

Or better yet: I got the picture!