Month: January 2018

Goin’ back to Windows: Launchy

By Marc Esher

This is part of a series on moving from desktop Linux back to Windows. The first post is here. The previous post is here. A very long time ago, before I had ever used Mac or Linux for personal computing, someone had convinced me of the value of a “launcher”: a program, usually invoked via alt-space, that would pop up a box and help you find stuff on your computer, launch programs / scripts, do quickie things like calculations, and otherwise keep your hands on the keyboard and off of the mouse. At that time, the only game in town … Continue reading Goin’ back to Windows: Launchy

Lambda: using AWS SAM Local to test Lambda functions locally on Windows

By Marc Esher

This is part of a series on moving from desktop Linux back to Windows. The first post is here. The previous post is here. AWS SAM Local is a “CLI tool for local development and testing of Serverless applications.” It uses Docker to simulate a Lambda-like experience. The docs explain well how to get started, and the GitHub repo has lots of samples as well. As of this writing, it supports python, java, .net, and nodejs. This is a quick post to show how to use it in Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and Docker For Windows. Installing on Windows … Continue reading Lambda: using AWS SAM Local to test Lambda functions locally on Windows

Windows IPv6 slow-or-broken: resolved

By Marc Esher

This is part of a series on moving from desktop Linux back to Windows. The first post is here. The previous post is here. Chocolatey slowness? When I originally posted about package management with Chocolatey, I mentioned two problems I had on a brand new laptop: 1) inability to download large packages; 2) general slowness when downloading. Turns out, these are not Chocolatey’s problems at all. Wait… Powershell too? I noticed when working in Powershell that curl, which just wraps Invoke-WebRequest, was taking a really long time. Simple commands were returning results like this: PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Measure-Command { curl https://microsoft.com … Continue reading Windows IPv6 slow-or-broken: resolved

Goin’ back to Windows: Windows Subsystem for Linux

By Marc Esher

This is part of a series on moving from desktop Linux back to Windows. The first post is here. The previous post is here. In short: I would not have moved back to Windows had it not been for the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). It has made the move from Linux back to Windows so much easier because I can still do the things that I’ve been doing for years, and do every day, quick and easy and familiar: installing and updating development environments (Python, Go, nodejs), databases (PostgreSQL); interacting with source control (git); running apps and tests; running … Continue reading Goin’ back to Windows: Windows Subsystem for Linux

Goin’ back to Windows: small, fuzzy apps and compatability settings

By Marc Esher

This is part of a series on moving from desktop Linux back to Windows. The first post is here. The previous post is here. In the first post, I mentioned that one of the motivators for moving back to Windows was that I really liked the hardware of the Lenovo Yoga 920. I bought one of the “4k Ultra HD Touch Screen” models, not because I cared about the 4k but because it was overall better spec’d. I’m not even sure 4k is realistically perceptible, or useful, on a 14″ laptop. In fact, on Windows 10, it does have a … Continue reading Goin’ back to Windows: small, fuzzy apps and compatability settings