Last year, we cut the cord on cable TV at our household. We’ve been using streaming services since then. And when I eliminated my dependence upon a local cable provider, a whole world of networking options opened up before our eyes. This week, I cut the cord on my personal Windows addiction. I have a feeling that I will now have access to a whole new world of computing options.
A Rocky Road
This transition has been a very hard thing for me to do. I grew up with Windows. Yes, I used CP/M on my first desktop computer. But the first business OS that I used was Windows 386 (v2.10). I did try OS/2 in the early nineties. And I have sporadically used Linux since the late nineties. But I have consistently used Windows as my “daily driver” since the early nineties.
Throughout this time, I have used all sorts of supporting services. I used Unix servers for my web services infrastructure. I used Windows servers for my business file, print, and messaging services. And for the past ten years, I’ve used Android for my mobile services. But all of these services were in support of my Windows addiction. All of my documents were accessible from my desktop. My key applications were Windows applications. And my “comfort zone” was decidedly Windows-centric.
But over the past decade, more and more of my services have been migrating either to my phone, to private cloud hardware, or to the public cloud. New capabilities in my house have all been based upon Linux as their operating platform. My storage systems are all Linux-based. My lighting systems use embedded services controlled by Linux servers/services. And almost all of my applications are now web-based. I still have a suite of desktop productivity tools (e.g., LibreOffice). But there are precious few of these kinds of apps left. Indeed, all of my mission-critical functions are now web-based.
The Rise of the Cloud
The migration to a web-based architecture has been underway since the mid-to-late nineties. But the migration to public and private clouds has only been underway for a little over a decade. I have been using public cloud services since 2005 (i.e., since the invite-only days of GMail). I also used Google Drive and Google Play Music as soon as they became available (in beta form). I’ve also used Dropbox, Spotify, and a large variety of other cloud services. Indeed, web services and cloud hosting is now ubiquitous.
But the real transformation has come with the exploitation of private cloud technologies. In our office (and at our home), we have needed file and print services. And we ran private file storage services principally hosted on private SAN devices. We also run IoT management services on a private cloud running in our facility. [Note: This private cloud is actually a hybrid cloud as it works with a public cloud for premise access).]
So with the complete migration to web services (and the nearly complete migration to cloud services), I only needed an excuse in order to address my Windows addiction.
Privacy Threats Have Forced Our Reconsideration
Over the past year, I have become even more keenly interested in the privacy (and security) of our computing platforms. I have implemented 2FA across the board. We have replaced stock router firmware with customized implementations. We’ve successfully installed (and configured) VPN concentrators for our premises. I’ve even implemented a comprehensive password manager.
But despite all of these changes (and a slew of other changes not highlighted here), I had not re-evaluated all of the service platform that I use; I thought that I had too much investment in Windows. After all, I had Windows file servers. And I had some Windows apps that were mission-critical.
But now that all of these apps (or comparable substitute apps) exist on Linux platforms, the barriers have diminished. And even more importantly, the implementation of Nextcloud as a private cloud has almost erased any client-based need for Windows. Consequently, I finally pulled the trigger on eliminating my personal addiction to Windows.
Why Nextcloud?
For those unfamiliar with Nextcloud, let me provide a little background. Nextcloud is an open-source product suite that provides services which were originally provided by Windows servers. Over the past two decades, the open source community has provided specific “point” solutions for some of these services (e.g., Samba file services, OnlyOffice and Collabora productivity tools, etc). But Nextcloud (which is a descendant of Owncloud) provides almost every services originally provided by a Windows server.
And what is the advantage of Nextcloud? That’s simple. Nextcloud is open source. So there is no server software licensing cost. More importantly, there are no client software licensing costs. [Note: You can buy “supported” versions of Nextcloud (like Univention UCS) if you need support options.] For this reason, we implemented Nextcloud so that we no longer needed to host file services on Windows servers.
Our Nextcloud implementation is fairly simple. We have one instance of the product running on an Ubuntu/Debian VM guest. [Note: Today, that guest is running on a Windows host. But that is the very last change we will make in order to completely eliminate our Windows server addiction.]
Client Independence
Once our Windows server dependence was cured, we began the client migration. My systems were the first to migrate. I am now this article using an Ubuntu 19.04 system that is running on my HP Pavilion laptop. While there are a couple of minor issues (like managing multiple display screens), I am able to do all of my work on this system – especially when coupled with our Nextcloud system.
Much of this could have been done a decade ago. But the real enabler for this transition has been the elimination of our dependence upon the Win32 API AND the elimination of our Windows server dependence.
Bottom Line
After nearly two-and-a-half decades of dependence, I am now clean and sober. My Windows addiction has been vanquished. I may still use Windows – as dictated by specific business requirements. But my default use of Microsoft Windows technologies is now at an end. As someone who compiled his first Linux desktop back in 1997, this transition is long overdue – and eminently satisfying.
