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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

#11

Post by gen3 »

speedgoose wrote: post #8
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.

I haven’t yet, but have heard good things about it. I’m also really looking forward to trying the new windows console.

Re: Linux on the Desktop as a Web Developer

#12

Post by gbuk2013 »

I’ve been using Linux (Debian) on my work laptops for over a decade now but corporate IT is finally forcing me to switch to Mac for bullshit policy reasons. It doesn’t help that Zoom is buggy and the VPN client we are forced to use is Mac/Windows only. :(

I wouldn’t go back to Windows for any reason short of a massive salary increase.

Re: Linux on the Desktop as a Web Developer

#13

Post by 29athrowaway »

Gnome 3.36 is one of the best releases of Gnome. Just switched back from XFCE. It looks polished, has better usability and performs way better than previous releases. Much of the HiDPI related problems (4k resolution) I had went away too.

Softmaker Office/FreeOffice is an excellent and free replacement for MS Office. Has a ribbon interface just like MS Office, is fast, and does everything you would expect it to do just fine.

For development, if you don't want to go through the learning curve of vi or emacs, the JetBrains family of products is excellent. Otherwise you may want to try spacemacs, a "distro" of emacs.

Zeal is a good alternative for Dash.

Steam allows you to install a wide range of games, even Windows games, via Proton. You can see the list of supported games here: https://www.protondb.com/

Now, if you are not as hardcore as the person from this post, use Tilix (similar to iTerm2) rather than plain tmux.

Now... why Linux? because it's an OS where developers can do whatever they want. There's no limit. You can mess with whatever you want, not only with the surfaces exposed to you (APIs).

Re: Linux on the Desktop as a Web Developer

#14

Post by AlexeyBrin »

Havoc wrote: post #9

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

> Been trying to install WSL2 for a month+ now.

WSL2 was/is not available yet for the stable branch of Windows, you need to use Windows Preview to access it. Try again in 1 - 2 months.

Re: Linux on the Desktop as a Web Developer

#15

Post by osrec »

dugmartin wrote: post #3

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-…

I use LXDE at the moment, primarily because it gets out of your way. I'm going to give regolith a try - it looks pretty cool (and by that, I mean functional). Thanks for sharing!

Re: Linux on the Desktop as a Web Developer

#17

Post by Boulth »

speedgoose wrote: post #8
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.

I worked on Windows for two decades and tried WSL1. Windows is not super annoying but as a developer all my tools were actually Linux native or cross platform so one day I just cut the middle man and switched to Linux. It wasn't such a big leap but my productivity definitely increased.

WSL is nice when you don't have choice. Linux is actually the optimum choice for most developers.

Re: Linux on the Desktop as a Web Developer

#18

Post by petepete »

gbuk2013 wrote: post #12

I’ve been using Linux (Debian) on my work laptops for over a decade now but corporate IT is finally forcing me to switch to Mac for bullshit policy reasons. It doesn’t help that Zoom is buggy and the VPN client we are forced to use is Mac/Windows only. :( I wouldn’t go back to Windows for any reason short of a massive salary increase.

The last time I worked for a company with a draconian corporate IT policy the entire technical team in our division had a Windows laptop for email/intranet and a machine of their choosing for actual work.

Windows isn't _that_ bad but having to raise a ticket for someone to allow you to install software or read from a USB thumb drive was infuriating.

Re: Linux on the Desktop as a Web Developer

#19

Post by rvz »

Well, WSL2 already fulfils this and allows me to use the same Windows standard defaults and using Linux in a VM with access to its file system in a single click install without rebooting back and forth with a Ubuntu install.

Re: Linux on the Desktop as a Web Developer

#20

Post by mherrmann »

Like OP, I switched to a Dell XPS from Mac. First with the pre-installed Ubuntu, then Xfce + Debian and now Debian + i3. It comes with headaches. Ubuntu (16)'s window handling was sometimes buggy for me. Xfce was fast and worked very well, but I wanted something with better multi-monitor support and even more minimalistic. i3 fits that bill nicely. I would not want to go back to Windows, Mac or Ubuntu for that matter, because they all force their agenda on you. (Ads in my start menu? No thanks. iTunes / Garage Band / many other apps I really don't want / "Sign into your Apple account"? Also, no thanks.) Plus, like OP, the shell on Linux is best when the server OS is the same as on the dev machine. It's not perfect, but I really wouldn't want anything else anymore.
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