Thanks for writing this list. I definitely agree with the backup part (and it reminds me that my backups are terribly out of date except for what’s in Git repos). I think that using multiple monitors effectively requires a good window manager. As for WYSIWYG, I’m glad to have discovered Latex and that I don’t have to touch Microsoft Word. That being said, I do hold out hope that someone will do WYSIWYG right someday. Also for presentations I use Keynote because I like to be able to just drag and reorder things and think fully visually.

@ Peter:

Well… Me. :)

4)
Who uses Firefox any more?
Not to speak of vim.

@ joek:

Well, #8 was targeted more at the Windows users who rarely venture outside their ecosystem. Most Linux users have some Windows experience already (often that’s what they have been using before they got into Linux) and often hop between distros every once in a while.

@ JuEeHa:

Wow, really? What were you running on the dual screen rig? I run Kubuntu and it works well for the most part (the nVidia drivers can be finicky sometimes). I guess the experience really depends on the setup.

Also, you are the first person I heard about who traded a 20″ monitor for 15″. I have a 22″ screen at home and 24″ one at work, and whenever I’m working on my 13″ laptop it feels incredibly cramped. I cannot imagine permanently downgrading my large screens.

@ Stephen McQuay:

Well, you never have to be away from ssh. I have iSSH on my iPhone for that very reason.

I do a similar thing for my passwords with a gpg-protected file. I also realize it isn’t the wisest thing in the world to do, but it (server) resides somewhere (ostensibly) safe, and bad guys would have to breach ssh, and my gpg password to get at them.

The only problem is that if I am away from ssh I am away from my passwords, so I haven’t come up with a mobile solution to this problem.

Hello from consoleland! I agree with most of what you say but some things I disagree with:
1. I tried two monitor setup but I found it uncomfortable to use and likewise I got “new” 20″ screen to replace my 15″ one but after few months of use I sold 20″ one to my friend and went back to 15″ one.
4. Consistent work-environment would be a good idea if my computer ran same OS or even somewhat compatible OSs. I use *nix (linux, netbsd, minix 1.5, rhapsody), plan9 (9front), dos (freedos, ms-dos 6), amiga os (Workbench 1.3, aros), beos (5 PE, haiku) and mac os (system 6, system 7) and there are basicaly no programs that will run on all of those and hugely varying drive sizes (40MB-60GB) make syncin even just code a pain in the ass. Great idea if you have more normal systems but not usable for all purposes.
7. Good idea but only for your less important passwords.

While I agree with point 8 in theory, in practice the only gaming I do is nethack, and I am a poor student with better things to spend my money on than Apple products.

Maybe I should be using Debian and BSD to fulfil this requirement…