Tools. Nearly everyone who performs efficiently and experiences repeated success has at his or her disposal an integrated set of tools that work together to deliver results. Of course, no amount of tools will compensate for a sloppy process, but let’s set that aside for now and turn our attention to approaching the art, or some would call it the science of cobbling together a set of tools and making them work in unison so that at the end of the day, there may be results that makes it all worthwhile.
The old adage heard around the world when it comes to building a house is “make sure you build it on a strong foundation.” Foundation, by its very definition is something upon which everything else is built. Employ a strong foundation, and you need not worry about what underneath you, and you’re free to focus on what you are building. Build on a shoddy foundation, and you’ll end up spending more time and energy buttressing your foundation that you are unable to execute on the primary goal, which is to build on top of the foundation.
So it goes without saying, or at least it should, that a set of software tools must be built upon a solid foundation. For the purposes of our discussion, that pretty much means the operating system. Install your software tool on top a stable operating system, and you’ll forget that the OS is what makes most of your software tool perform flawlessly. Choose a shaky OS and you’ll be spending time patching that OS and researching it various ills that you’ll have little time to fully flesh out the capabilities of your software tool. Worse yet, you may end up blaming the software and chucking it, and in the process failing to give it a fair shake. All that, because of a shaky OS.
In our next installment, we will look at what constitutes our definition of the stable operating system. And we’ll also take a brief look as to why you may want to consider a portable software workbench. All that and more when we return. Stay tuned.
The Kold Kat
Your friendly neighborhood Koldkast contributor