On a typical day at Case I use anywhere from 3 to 7 different computers, often on 2 or 3 different platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac). I only own two computers, so this means I spend a lot of time using the "public" computing facilities around campus.

There are three facilities that do nearly everything I want and offer an enjoyable experience. I'll save those for last. First I'd like to offer some criticism about everything else. I admit that I'm more demanding than most users, but why is that an excuse to make your facilities crappy?

iBooks in Kelvin Smith Library: Anyone can check out an iBook from the amazing Freedman Center in our library. Ah, wonderful! An operating system where I can easily SSH into my own computer and install things to my home directory without making a huge mess.

Sadly, not so. Even though OS X clearly has a satisfactory permissions model, these are totally locked down. You can't even run Terminal. Sorry, but if I can't do this on a computer, I consider it useless. Part of the problem is that there is a single universal login for everyone. Having real user profiles would be a hassle since they only connect via wireless and downloading a user's Home folder would slow things down quite a bit. Maybe there could be a link on the desktop to the user's Filer account, encouraging them to save there, and the Home folders could be wiped at the end of the session?

Desktops in Kelvin Smith Library: You have five options: Internet Explorer, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Word. No, not even Notepad or Calculator are available.

E-mail Machines in Thwing, Village at 115, Wade, Fribley: These Windows machines are only good at one thing: checking e-mail. Some of them won't even let you check the time, because the system tray clock is disabled for no apparent reason. They are totally locked down. There's no Firefox, so web surfing for more than a few minutes sucks. There's no PuTTY. Why do these have to suck so much? Here's how to fix them: install Firefox, install PuTTY, install TightVNC, let people run Remote Desktop if they can't already, and make the clock huge instead of nonexistant.

Virtual Worlds Lab: Not much to complain about here, these machines are pretty sweet despite the fact that they are running Windows. They have big storage drives separate from the Windows drive where you can install and run programs, but sadly these are machine-specific and not network drives. These machines would be absolutely sweet for graphic design, but every time I try this I remember that you can't install fonts due to the lame permissions, so you're stuck with the defaults. Also—correct me if I'm wrong—these are supposed to be gaming machines, yes? Are there even any games on there yet? It's been a year. And last I checked, using flash drives did not work in here.

Technology Enhanced Classrooms: These suffer from some of the same problems as the public computers in Thwing. No Firefox. No PuTTY, although thankfully you can run executables that don't install anything, so downloading PuTTY (and VNC, and VLC) is no problem. There is a universal login, so leftover crap from random people clutters the Desktop and My Documents folders. Also, could someone please explain to me how the ability to right-click is a security flaw? Seriously, it's like someone is playing a cruel joke by disabling random features—or is Windows really that busted?

Jennings Windows Lab: Why would anyone use these when there are machines that don't take five minutes to log on right across the room? Sometimes you get lucky and it doesn't take forever to migrate your profile for some reason. I think reading from flash drives works, but not writing.

Finally, here are the computing facilities I actually find enjoyable.

Jennings Unix Lab: Holy crap, these thin clients running Ubuntu are a dream come true. There are hundreds of awesome desktop apps on here. Your choice of KDE, GNOME, or something more exotic. You can install stuff to your home directory, and drop stuff in your ~/web directory to put it online. I think I have a better success rate printing from here than on the Windows machines. And Simon is looking to make these even better with one of those handy EECS bounties (which I took him up on).

Smith Computer Lab (aka Nord Lab): Wow, non-crippled Macs and power-user-friendly Windows machines. On the Macs, dragging applications to your Home folder installs them there, and you can run Terminal. Heck, I even installed SQLite, Ruby, Rails, and DarwinPorts on there and ran a server. I think there's a link to your Filer drive on the desktop.

The Windows machines are done right, too, with PuTTY, TightVNC, and even an X11 server for Windows (the name escapes me, it's not Cygwin).

Astronomy Computer Lab: Located on the fifth floor of Sears next to the Astronomy Library are some Windows and Linux machines. The Linux machines are running RedHat and are totally sweet! They offer a very similar experience to the Jennings thin clients, except the audio output works and there's no annoying redraw that comes with using a thin client. The only problem is there is no automated account registration, you have to personally request an account (and probably have a purpose for it).

Speaking of public computing, the only computers around the (totally awesome) new EECS student lounge are the Windows machines in the circuits lab. There is so much desk space in this new lounge I was considering covertly setting up a Linux machine anyone could log onto with their Case ID; I wonder if anyone would notice?