OSX at work, Win7 at home?

Last week, Apple finally released updated Windows 7 drivers, allowing me to get my Windows 7 Boot Camp partition working smoothly on my 17” Macbook Pro. I haven’t really been missing Windows 7, I barely used it at work since installing it a month or two ago, but being able to boot up my laptop into either Mac OS X or Windows 7 was a big selling feature for me. For all the internet flame-wars about which operating system is better, I have always found reasons to like them both, enough to enjoy having both installed on my machines.

One of the main reasons I like having Windows 7 installed is that it is not the operating system I am using at work. As a web developer who spends eight to ten hours a day working on a computer, I find it often hard to come home and sit in front of the same machine for more hours, even though I kind of want to; video gaming, blogging, surfing the internet, my own web-based side-projects… all things I enjoy doing, but have a hard time doing so after basically spending all day already doing that.

Having OS X for work is great, as there are a multitude of great apps to work in and with. Many of my respected colleagues in the same field as I work on Macs, which means there are programs, systems, applications, widgets, tweaks, and more geared directly for them (and me). It certainly makes my job easier and more enjoyable.

Having Windows 7 for home is a refreshing change of pace. Microsoft’s latest operating system is polished and works smoothly; I haven’t noticed any of the headaches or frustrations many people were experiencing with Windows Vista. More importantly, it works different, responds different, feels different, and I’ve set it up different. I have a Twitter gadget always open at one side. I have a Steam account with all my video games at the ready. I have Google Chrome installed, as well as Windows Live Writer (which I am using to write this, my first attempt at using this program). I don’t have an HTML editor installed, I don’t have an FTP program installed, I don’t have an SVN client installed.

If I need to do work, either at the office or at home, I can boot up in Mac OS X, and have an environment dedicated to that. If I don’t want to work, I can boot up in Windows 7, and have an environment purposely separated from where and how I work.

It’s something that feels comfortable so far. I’ll see how it works out.

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