Your Development Environment


When I first started working in “the real world”, I had a development environment which I’d describe as typical: average Dell computer and peripherals, one monitor, Windows XP with all my applications installed, including VS2003 and VS2005. I’m sure

Last year, when I struck out on my own to start Plastiscenic, I knew I needed an upgrade. For starters, my XP install was grinding to a halt. But I was also concerned about the way all of my interests were intermingling – games, hobby stuff and professional stuff all on the same installation. That felt pretty bad to me, not least because Windows XP gets very sluggish after a few months with lots of programs installed.

I purchased an Intel Q6600 with 4Gb of RAM, and a 10k RPM boot drive. That was stage one. I set up two monitors on a bigger desk with a lamp on it to reduce any strain on my eyes. I installed Vista 64 Business Edition, which I felt was a better match for the hardware than XP. The core setup was there, but there was still a key component missing.

VMWare provided the answer. By creating a stripped down Windows XP installation I had a fast virtual machine to install development software on. I had another VM for SQL Server. These trim virtual machines could be backed up with ease, and moved offsite if need be. If my main machine died, I only had to reinstall a basic environment and VMWare Player to become productive again.

In a larger team of developers, such virtualisation software provides even more options. An administrator could provide base images which can be served across a network, giving developers tailored environments within a few clicks. This is good for testing too – prepare images for a multitude of operating systems for pre-production testing of a desktop application.

I believe virtualisation will become even more popular over the next few years, giving us more opportunities to create sandboxed environments which can be run at the click of the mouse. 

Design Dithering