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Linux on the Desktop as a Web Developer

nolanlawson.com

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Re: Linux on the Desktop as a Web Developer

#3

Post by dugmartin »

I've been using a Dell 13" Ubuntu 4K laptop hooked to a 43" monitor as my main work web development system for a year and a half. All of my co-workers use Macs.

Pros: compared to Macs using Docker is very performant especially when sharing the host file system for development and once I found Regolith (https://regolith-linux.org/) I don't think I could go back to a normal windowing system.

Cons: non-Electron cross-platform apps seems to get short shift on Linux. For instance, the Zoom client is buggy and seems to be the last to have new features rolled out to it and I CANNOT for the life of me get my Microsoft mouse's scroll wheel to smooth scroll correctly.

Re: Linux on the Desktop as a Web Developer

#4

Post by montroser »

For Linux on the desktop, I can't say enough good things about ElementaryOS. It's beautiful, defaults are good, compatible with Ubuntu.

Especially if you're coming from MacOS, my experience is that it feels familiar, comes with all of the just-works, and as a bonus you can be in full control of your OS if that's what you want.

Re: Linux on the Desktop as a Web Developer

#5

Post by gen3 »

I’ve found Linux to be a really good machine for development. Windows with Cygwin is a good mixture, but windows file locking, and the lack of bash (and some tools) really have made it a pain when developing back on Windows.

At this point everything “just works” for me on Linux (Using Kubuntu) and is super stable. I don’t game much, and proton has worked for everything I need.

Re: Linux on the Desktop as a Web Developer

#7

Post by gen3 »

montroser wrote: post #4

For Linux on the desktop, I can't say enough good things about ElementaryOS. It's beautiful, defaults are good, compatible with Ubuntu. Especially if you're coming from MacOS, my experience is that it feels familiar, comes with all of the just-works, and as a bonus you can be in full control of your OS if that's what you want.

I would be happy recommend ElementaryOS to anyone. I used it for a few years before moving to Kububtu (with help theming from /r/unixporn). It looked nice and worked well imo.

Re: Linux on the Desktop as a Web Developer

#8

Post by speedgoose »

gen3 wrote: post #5

I’ve found Linux to be a really good machine for development. Windows with Cygwin is a good mixture, but windows file locking, and the lack of bash (and some tools) really have made it a pain when developing back on Windows. At this point everything “just works” for me on Linux (Using Kubuntu) and is super stable. I don’t game much, and proton has worked for everything I need.

Have you tried WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)? After many years on Mac and then Linux, I switched to Windows and it's actually fine.

Re: Linux on the Desktop as a Web Developer

#9

Post by Havoc »

I’ve found it much easier than Windows. Can never get power shell to do what I want. Eg the other day a google QuickStart guide required setting a .sh as executable. Couldn’t figure that out. Been trying to install WSL2 for a month+ now.

So now I’m just dual booting

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