Everyone has its own criteria to choose a new computer, like the performance, the appearance, the portability or the compromise among those. It depends on how you use it.

It may sound crazy if I say I have spent nearly two years searching for a new laptop before I drop the old Acer. I have to compromise for my limit budget.

What do I think about when choosing the laptop?

• I use it to beautify the pictures and type words mainly;
• It needn’t a high performance for I never play games with it. It is enough that it run AI and PS fluently. And I needn’t Discrete Video card.
• It must be portable. There is a period of time when I couldn’t imagine where I would be the day after that day.
• It is better with aesthetic appearance. I don’t like the design of Mac. ThinkPad X1 is better.
• The price should be between 6k ~ 8k. Unfortunately, the ThinkPad X1’s price is beyond that, or I will get it.

I choose the Surface Pro 4 finally. Which made me make the decision is the instinct rather than ration when I was sitting in the sofa and listening to the music in the Zoo Cafe of Shanghai. However, that’s not irrational for I have got what I want.

There is a lack of consideration, which is I couldn’t predict that I would be a programmer one year later. I have to consider how to use it to program. In fact, I hardly program at home. But I need to do conveniently if I have to. So how to program comfortably with Surface Pro and Windows10?

The solution: Linux in Windows10

System: Ubuntu 18.04

I program in Linux most of the time. My laptop at work is a ThinkPad with both Ubuntu and Windows10. I hardly use the latter. The Surface Pro I bought is with a low specification. I can’t install another system based on just 128 SSD. The only solution is a visual system before the Subsystem and it uses too much memory. I love the subsystem for the low cost of resources. GUI is useless where there is Windows. For programming, bash is enough.

The speed and efficiency are lower than that in pure Linux. There is an obvious delay when I start building and running migration in Rails. It is ok to use it once in a while but not often.

I can’t update the system of my work laptop casually, so I have a try of the version of 18.04 on Surface.

Editor: Atom

I use vim mostly at work, and so in the subsystem at the early stage. But I don’t like the colors of the Bash, and I can’t change them to ones with low saturation. And it runs slowly. So I switch to editors in Windows. I have used Notepad++ and Sublime. Both of them are ok except for one thing. The input tooltip went to the left top corner of the screen when I typed in Chinese. It’s strange.

I finally choose the Atom, which is open source and full of functions. I can type codes and write articles comfortably with its nearly perfect Markdown Editor.

There is one limit ( or maybe a bug ): Sometimes I can’t switch to Chinese while typing in English. It is not the fault of the IME for I found that problem in both in Windows and Ubuntu with Atom.

The Remote Terminal: Termius

I rent a VPS some months ago when I made the Kindlepush and need a remote terminal. I use Remmia in Ubuntu at work and putty in Windows. The UI of putty in my laptop is unclear for it hasn’t been adapted to HD.

I found the Termius in the Microsoft Store and it hit my heart. The functions are same with other terminals but the UI is beautiful. There is none high saturation here.

The shortage: The shortcuts of I configured in Termiux doesn’t work and I don’t know why.

File Transmission: FileZilla

I used to use FTP for transferring files into the server when I used Virtual Host early years. What the seller gave me are the IP, the port and the username and password of the FTP. It is unsafe to use FTP which is easily attacked. I can fetch my server with SSH, but what about file e? The answer is SFTP, which is based on SSL and safe in transferring.

FileZilla is the best choice both for FTP and SFTP. It can be used in Windows and Linux with full of functions.

Project Management: Trello

I found the Trello in Microsoft Store, but I have heard of it already. I found it very useful in project management, reading management, learning management, writing management, lifestyle management, travel management, and even life management. It can be used in anything which name contains the word “management”. I make a habit of making plans before any development with it.

Conclusion

Surface is useful in daily use and outside use. Sometimes you can use it to program outside work when making a small project or repair a bug. However, it can not be used in your work. There are limits of programming in Windows, at least, for me. I need a Linux.