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From Mac to Linux: Web Development with Linux

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Re: From Mac to Linux: Web Development with Linux

#21
post #18

You can see the differences between linux and macOS when you consider your environment as a desktop workstation rather than a simple dev machine. I've switched from linux to macOS after 13+ years because, IMHO, the linux desktop overall experience sucks for everyday use.

That's interesting; what challenges did you run into most often?

Re: From Mac to Linux: Web Development with Linux

#22
I use a Mac, but just as a terminal to a Linux workstation.

Unfortunately, I work in a place where we need access to Outlook (and its calendar), and Skype for Business / Lync. There is not really a good story for these things on Linux still (and I doubt we will ever see a Skype for Business for Linux), and even with Thunderbird + Exquilla, email is tough.

That said, my laptop mounts my workstations home dir, and then I use iTerm's fantastic tmux integration to connect to the shell.

(My personal PC at home is still Linux though :) )

Re: From Mac to Linux: Web Development with Linux

#23

So what is so much better on Linux than Mac? You can use nvm, etc

Not having to go through things like this [0] just so that I can use non-ancient versions of GNU utils. [0] http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/69223/how-to-replac...

I like linux, maybe not as hardcore as many users here, but your point is really lost on me. I run a modified version of mathias dotfiles so provisioning is usually simply ./bootstrap.sh. I like the os x desktop better than linux, and while I can see the value of running linux for your development machine, the extra effort of having to download GNU utilitites a single time with a switch/flag really isn't a big enough reason to jump shit on the entire ecosystem to be honest.

Re: From Mac to Linux: Web Development with Linux

#24
post #22

I use a Mac, but just as a terminal to a Linux workstation. Unfortunately, I work in a place where we need access to Outlook (and its calendar), and Skype for Business / Lync. There is not really a good story for these things on Linux still (and I doubt we will ever see a Skype for Business for Linux), and even with Thunderbird + Exquilla, email is tough. That said, my laptop mounts my workstations home dir, and then…

I use Outlook's webmail which has improved vastly compared to earlier versions. I'm not sure if Skype of Business supports their web interface, but you could give it a try https://web.skype.com

Re: From Mac to Linux: Web Development with Linux

#25
post #14
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The user interface. The package manager that handles everything. Not being locked to Apple's ecosystem, e.g. needing to install Xcode to get your CLI ecosystem working. Not having yearly updates that change everything. Using an open source operating system and not being bound to Apple hardware.

>Not having yearly updates that change everything Yeah, right. >not being bound to Apple hardware. Not an issue for years already, unless we are talking about some very specific hardware. PS: not trying to advocate for either of systems, worked on both linux (ubuntu, arch, centos) and macOS. Both have their share of pros and cons.

I'm using a Hackintosh for 4 years now. It's definitely not true that one is bound to Apple hardware.

Re: From Mac to Linux: Web Development with Linux

#26
post #22

I use a Mac, but just as a terminal to a Linux workstation. Unfortunately, I work in a place where we need access to Outlook (and its calendar), and Skype for Business / Lync. There is not really a good story for these things on Linux still (and I doubt we will ever see a Skype for Business for Linux), and even with Thunderbird + Exquilla, email is tough. That said, my laptop mounts my workstations home dir, and then…

I use Outlook's webmail which has improved vastly compared to earlier versions. I'm not sure if Skype of Business supports their web interface, but you could give it a try https://web.skype.com

Yeah, I used to use the web interface, but found it lacking, especially with meeting invites.

Skype for Business has no web interface :( . I tried windows VMs, dialing in, mobile apps, 3rd party apps - but nothing was reliable / usable enough for daily use.

Re: From Mac to Linux: Web Development with Linux

#28
Honestly, nice if that works easy for you when using just developer tools on the terminal or a text editor. As a web developer, though, you might end up using more than that. A Mac offers so much more commercial applications that just do not exist on any Linux distribution.

Gimp is no replacement for Photoshop and Inkscape is not replacement for Illustrator, ...

Btw, mostly everything you install with `apt-get` can be installed with `brew` as well (MongoDB, Elastic, nvm, etc.).

Re: From Mac to Linux: Web Development with Linux

#29
post #17

Having the same environment on your local machine as on your target server is a real productivity saver and a good reason to use Linux. Additionally I've recently started using elasticsearch docker containers and I found Linux is a far better host than Docker for Mac (as it still runs a tiny Linux vm with associated slower disk access).

> Having the same environment on your local machine as on your target server is a real productivity saver and a good reason to use Linux.

And this is why MS has gotten all buddy buddy with Canonical.

Re: From Mac to Linux: Web Development with Linux

#30
To me a huge selling point of linux is i3wm. If you haven't used this thing yet, you absolutely have to try it out! It is the best tool that I have discovered since emacs.

It allows me to easily and conveniently manage dozens of windows, and it's hard to describe how convenient that is until you get used to it.

I usually have around 10 workspaces open:

1. Emacs with personal notes, goals, todo lists.

2. Emacs windows I use for development and code.

3. Terminals for all sorts of servers and processes running in the bg. Django, compass, webpack, stuff like that.

4. Terminal for "practical" tasks - updating git, ssh, all sorts of commands I want to use.

5. Nautilus.

8. Video player with tutorials and courses I'm watching.

9. Photoshop and other graphical/visual stuff.

10. Chrome.

I can switch to any of those with one hotkey, and navigation is super easy and convenient. It is so awesome that I'm thinking that it's almost the main reason I'm not going back to mac.

Oh, and also Ubuntu 16 is fucking great. Everything works pretty much out of the box, everything is easy to install, just perfect.

The only drawback of linux is editing graphics and videos. At the moment I'm using Photoshop with wine for design and kdenlive for video editing. They are good enough to work, but do have bugs and inconveniences, not as great as you would want.

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