Linux in a Microsoft shop

I've always been a Microsoft guy. Mostly because of chance. I started off by playing games on Windows, then learning a bit of HTML and using FrontPage 98. Shortly after that came ASP, then VB6, .NET and here we are now with .NET. Granted, this all happened over a large period of time, and a few technologies where sprinkled throughout.

During most of my time developing, I couldn't see myself making a jump over to *nix. I always thought Linux desktops were cool with their transparent windows and nice screen savers, but I didn't know much about Linux past that. Granted, it was free and if I ever wanted to be truly type casted over to the "hardcore" developers, I thought I at least had to install Linux on at least one of my computers. That never happened. I had no reason to dabble in Linux, I felt nice in cozy drinking Microsoft's Kool-Aid, so I just turned my head to anything Linux... and Mac!

Now, here I am as a small business owner to be, and I'm faced with making cost conscious decisions. How can I run my business at a low cost? Well, I'm fairly new to the market, so I will be learning as I go. I can use my common sense and not go for the most expensive software/hardware/etc... just for the sake of it. I also knew that I had to have at least the bare essentials for my consulting business, two of which are source control and defect tracking.

In comes Linux and VMWare. Shortly after purchasing VMWare Workstation (roughly $200 from time of writing) for testing and development purposes, I noticed that the VMWare site had a section (VMTN) where you could download pre-built Linux machines with applications. We're talking about applications that run bug tracking software, source control, firewalls, software load balancers, coffee makers (latte's not available)... Furthermore, leveraging VMWare's free software to run virtual machines, you can run these solutions pretty much free!

There are some limitations of course, there is no such thing as free lunch, that is of course unless you take it from someone weak, but that's just the bully in me. Some of the VMWare pre-built applications weren't exactly what I was looking for, they were either too hot or too cold. I had to modify something or another to get them to work properly, so in the end I decided to download the image for Ubuntu (flavor of Linux) and install everything myself to my own taste. I preferred this route because I accomplished something I thought I never would, I learned Linux and the outcome benefited me by having software that I could rely on.

I plan to keep on using the VMWare/Linux combination until I find better alternatives that include the cost-benefit/functionality advantages that this duo offers.

But I still don't like Macs.