Even though this blog is very Microsoft centric, I do work with other operating systems.
My "Unix" background dates back to IBM AIX, SGI Irix, and of course, Linux. I 'experimented in college' with other operating systems like OS/2, FreeBSD, SunOS, Solaris and BeOS.
Even before then, I ran a BBS under various computer systems starting with an Atari 400 self-modded/self-soldered from 4k to 52k. It even had a toggle switch to switch between 52k and 48k memory sizes because some programs couldn't address the last 4k properly.
The BBS progressed to an Atari 1040ST, then to a 386 running Desqview, then to a 486 running OS/2. A mutated/updated form of OS/2 (eCOM Station) still runs a good amount of ATMs and other POS systems.
Anyway, back to the future - today, I still like to tinker with various operating systems and kernels, case in point:
Windows Vista as a host, VMWare 6.0 as the virtualization software, Redhat Fedora 7.90 (Rawhide), and kernel 2.6.23-0.71.rc2.fc8.
I took a Fedora 7 VM image and decided to live dangerously on the bleeding edge and enabled the development repositories. The end result is a pretty nice OS. I wish I could use the fancy 3D effects but at least I get to play with some of the newer technologies.
I still am on the fence whether I like KDE or Gnome better. I always had a soft spot for Enlightenment way back when too. It is interesting to see stuff that was in Enlightenment about 10 years ago get rolled into other products in 2007.
Kernel 2.6.23 will or has merged, depending on when you read this, a lot of patches that have been waiting on the sidelines. One of the more notable ones is the Xen patches.
I'm not using Xen at the moment but it was nice to see this fly by when the kernel was booting:
[snip]
VMI: Found VMware, Inc. Hypervisor OPROM, API version 3.0, ROM version 1.0
Booting paravirtualized kernel on vmi
ACPI: Battery Slot [BAT1] (battery present)
[/snip]
Reporting the battery status seems to be working properly, and ditto for the paravirtulization "stuff" with VMWare 6.0
Next goal: ESX 3.0.2 in a VM under Workstation 6.0 - I actually have a reason for wanting to do this, honest.