Matt Oldham

My current development environment has to be the best configuration I’ve had to date in my development career.  Here are some of the specifics:

• HP EliteBook laptop (8730w)
• 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo 64-bit
• 6GB Memory
• openSuse 11.1 64-bit

The move to Linux from Windows has been a huge plus, though not without its own challenges.  But it’s not just the hardware and OS.  Here are the tools that round out a highly productive development environment:

• Oracle 10g Express Edition (XE) Cost: $0.  I have been using Oracle since 1998 and can tell you that XE is a huge step forward in providing developers a full Oracle functionality with a small footprint.  And, it’s free.  We have each developer install a local copy from which we do our individual development database builds.  The database build process (which is performed using Apache Ant) required a bit of special XE configuration to work properly, but is by far one of the best features of our agile development and implementation process.  I am eagerly awaiting Oracle’s release of the 11g version of XE.
• Oracle SQL Developer Cost: $0.  Currently using version 1.5.5.  It’s not TOAD, which is what I grew up using, but it is slowly gaining all the features of TOAD and more.  All in all, I am satisfied.
• Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler Cost: $0.  All I can say is “Wow”!  I have been looking at data modeling tools for a long time.  My favorite was Oracle Designer back in the day, but I have primarily used ERwin in most of my work.  My frustration was that there was always something missing in terms of features and functionality.  Not so with this new (and, currently, free) tool from Oracle.  I immediately incorporated it into our development process and have not looked back.  If you are looking for a fully featured data modeling tool that will work for Oracle, SQL Server (2000 and 2005), and DB2 – this is the tool for you.
• Apache Ant Cost: $0.  When I was first introduced to Ant I was skeptical to say the least.  For a Java developer, sure… but for the database?  I mean, what could possibly be done with that basic <sql> task?  Boy was I missing out.  After a bit of reading and experimentation (and a ton of insight from a very smart friend and colleague) I had a full blown agile database build utility on my hands.  I can’t say enough good things about Ant.
• Subversion (SVN) Cost: $0.  Nothing more to say here.  The breadth of the user community says it all.
• SmartSVN Cost $0.  For a Linux development environment, this is a great graphical client for SVN.  While it’s not needed since you can do all the work with SVN from the command line, it has a load of features even without enabling the Professional version.
• TortoiseSVN Cost: $0. For a Windows development environment, this is definitely the best SVN client.  Native Windows Explorer integration makes all the difference.  Developed by the same group who maintains Subversion, Tigris.  Now, if only they would port it to one of the Gnome/KDE file managers with the same level of integration.
• Crossover Linux (Standard) Cost: $40.  If you need to run windows applciations natively in Linux, this is probably the solution.  I’m not the biggest fan of it but it’s the best (if not only viable) alternative and it does do the job. Office 2007 is supported, BTW.
• UltraEdit for Linux, aka UEX Ohhhh yeah, finally a VI alternative with all the bells and whistles you could ask for.  I have been using UE since 1997, and I can honestly say I use it every day.  UEX is still in beta, but that hasn’t stopped me from using it.  My hope is that I can transfer my UE license to UEX – we’ll see.
• VMWare Workstation Cost: $189.  Yes there are other options here (like the free VirtualBox tool from Sun), but you cannot go wrong with VMWare.  Tried and true.

Do you see the pattern?  Open source and free (or at least low cost).  Not necessarily the path of least resistance, but the best things are seldom the easiest to come by.

Also, if you happen to be looking for a good portable hard drive with high capacity and a low profile, take a look at OyenDigital.  I am currently using the 500GB External 2.5-inch eSATA/USB Portable Hard Drive for which I paid $130.  While it’s only 5400RPM, I can still run virtual machines over the eSATA connection with no problems.  We have a second one (320GB model) we carry with us that contains our full SCM environment running in a Linux VM.  Plug it in, fire up the VM, and we are set.