IntelliJ IDEA meets Zenburn

Black and white colors in text editors never stroke me as the most ergonomic.

I imagine most office paper is white because it is easiest/cheapest to make. And ink is naturally black. Therefore white and black in real world, black and white on the computer screen. But it doesn't have to be that way.

I came across Zenburn theme. Surprisingly Googling Zenburn IntelliJ IDEA wasn't satisfactory. There is Zenburn theme for vim/kate/Eclipse/VStudio/... but not IDEA?

Just made my own theme based on Zenburn, it is in early stages but I think it is far better than the default.

Default



Zenburn


On a side note, Googling for a low contrast theme was non the less fruitful. There is a theme called Vibrant Ink. And the IntelliJ Theme for it here. I think it is a good choice as well.

Time for Linux

I never was much fan of Linux. Usually I'd install it and after a week of frustrations go back to Windows. But after using Ubuntu 8.04 and now 8.10, I am impressed, It just works.



Experience 1: Installing Software /Prolog

Ubuntu
1. sudo apt-get install swi-prolog

that is it! Now I can just run prolog and we're in business

Windows XP
1. Google SWI-Prolog
2. Go to web page and look for download link
3. Open download page, look for windows file
4. download the file
5. Run the file, next,next, yes I am sure, finish
6. Clik on start, clik on SWI-Prolog
7. We're in business

Clearly in Linux this is far simpler.

Experience 2: Cable modem via USB

Ubuntu:
I plugged the modem via USB, voila new ethernet connection detected, works, we're in business.

Windows XP:
1. plugging the usb cable, nothing happens.
2. searching my CD collection for the cd that came with the modem
3. put the CD in
4. control panel, device manager
5. select usb modem? huh it detected it, install driver
6. manual driver setup, next, yes, sure, finish
7. maybe restart?
8. We're in business

Again, this was much simpler under Linux.

Finally after all this years Linux/Ubuntu just works. Didn't had any major problems with anything I needed to do.