The desktop and the developer • Hacker News Board

Re: The desktop and the developer

#221

Post by ekianjo » Wed, May 21, 2014, 4:09 AM UTC

atweiden wrote: post #216

ekianjo wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is Linux support on the CF-53 ?

I've had Arch running on the 53 since ever. The only major gripe I have is with the apparently decreased battery life. There are ways of extending battery life [1], but I'm usually plugged in when I work so I haven't played with it. I also haven't tested Linux support for: - GOBI - GPS - touchscreen - multiple monitors - printers, scanners, fax machines as I don't use those things or they did not come with my particu…

Thanks, this is really helpful. I'm now considering the 53 (for Linux use only). Looks like a great machine indeed.

Have you ever tested its solidity ? (i.e. made it fall?). Does the weight (2.7 kg) bother you in any way ?

Re: The desktop and the developer

#222

Post by krakensden » Wed, May 21, 2014, 4:23 AM UTC

sonofsam wrote: post #177

microtonal wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just don't get how OSX is so popular with a developers. It is essentially a "user's" OS. I have been a Linux user from 1994 to 2007 (mostly Slackware, some Debian and CentOS later), Mac from 2007. I switched to OS X, because: (1) I don't want to mess with hardware and drivers anymore; (2) I don't want to update my whole operating system to update applications; (3) in my work environment people do use Microsoft Offi…

| (2) I don't want to update my whole operating system to update applications; This is huge. IMO, this is the purpose of an operating system. I want to install applications, I do not want to waste time installing new versions of my operating system. The main focus of Linux distributions should be to make as many applications as possible available to the user and make them easily available. That being said, Docker has…

Gobolinux implements exactly this.

It's never really taken off.

Re: The desktop and the developer

#223

Post by VintageCool » Wed, May 21, 2014, 4:32 AM UTC

harel wrote: post #33

I just don't get how OSX is so popular with a developers. It is essentially a "user's" OS. Not a developer one. Its geared towards, and hides a lot from, the common user. Setting up OSX with all the dev stack is usually a painful experience requiring a few workarounds (I see this with colleagues of mine who wanted a Mac over a Thinkpad with Linux). The keyboard as well is anythign but developer friendly. Where are th…

Macbook laptops were insanely popular 6-8 years ago. They had the best hardware, well integrated software, and access to the bash shell and all the favorite unix utilities. OSX had support for Internet Explorer and Linux didn't really.

All of the Ruby on Rails web developers switched to Macbooks at that time.

The author sees all of these people using OS X and wonders why they would pick Mac now over Linux now, but that's the wrong question. The reason that everyone is using Macbooks is because everyone picked Apple six years ago.

Notice that this thread is full of people who switched to OS X laptops in 2007, but they no longer see the competitive advantage and they're switching back to Linux.

http://paulgraham.com/mac.html

http://paulgraham.com/microsoft.html

Re: The desktop and the developer

#224

Post by mattdeboard » Wed, May 21, 2014, 4:42 AM UTC

gooseyard wrote: post #69

I like OSX on a laptop because it's the only portable machine I've ever used where everything works correctly when I am constantly opening and closing the lid of the machine. At work I will leave my desk several times per day for meetings in conference rooms, then I take the machine home and I may open and close it a dozen more times in the evening. I've probably had 50 laptops over the last 20 years, and the only on…

Ubuntu 13.10 on a ThinkPad X230 works flawlessly in this way as well.

When I first got this machine, I also ordered the docking station with it so I could plug my monitor, mouse, headphones, and phone charging cable into that instead of the laptop. I can drop my machine into the docking station, and either open the lid (out-of-the-box, no-config multi-monitor display) or not and everything just ... works. It's amazing.

I don't have a dog in this OS fight but just wanted to throw that out there.

Re: The desktop and the developer

#225

Post by girvo » Wed, May 21, 2014, 5:03 AM UTC

Igglyboo wrote: post #159

silverbax88 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've used Linux, Windows and OS X. I don't consider OS X to be a development environment for serious development. I do consider Linux and Windows to be real dev tools.

I don't know a single person that uses windows for development other than people writing windows specific(.net) software, judging by the overall vibe on HN and /r/programming I'd assume this is a general trend.

I really dislike Windows, and use OS X and Linux entirely (and have for the past... hell, nearly 8 years now!) -- but Visual Studio is an amazing IDE. Like, really really good. VS.Php[0], Resharper... tonnes of amazing plugins so even other languages other than .Net are amazing in it.

Where I work, it's a 50/40/10% split between Windows, OS X and Linux as our DE's, though most of us run a Linux VM for the development server to run on. Makes life easier that way, and with Vagrant we're all running the exact same environment, despite differing opinions on how to do things!

[0] http://www.vsphp.com/

Re: The desktop and the developer

#226

Post by wangweij » Wed, May 21, 2014, 5:08 AM UTC

I've used Mac for 8 years (since the 1st gen Intel MacBook) but now I really want to run away. My current Mac is a server-level 2013 i7 Mac Mini with 8G RAM. It's not uncommon for me to run Mail, SubLime Text, IntelliJ IDEA and one or two VirtualBox guests on it, and then CPU goes high, the whole machine slows down, and fan produces loud noises. On the other hand, my ThinkPad running Windows 8.1 with a similar hardware spec can handle them smoothly. I agree Mac is more developer friendly than Windows, but doing daily developing work with cygwin/SubLime Text/IntelliJ IDEA is almost identical on both platforms. I admit I'll try installing Linux if I make the decision to switch to the ThinkPad as my main desktop.

Re: The desktop and the developer

#227

Post by elwesties » Wed, May 21, 2014, 5:12 AM UTC

wangweij wrote: post #226

I've used Mac for 8 years (since the 1st gen Intel MacBook) but now I really want to run away. My current Mac is a server-level 2013 i7 Mac Mini with 8G RAM. It's not uncommon for me to run Mail, SubLime Text, IntelliJ IDEA and one or two VirtualBox guests on it, and then CPU goes high, the whole machine slows down, and fan produces loud noises. On the other hand, my ThinkPad running Windows 8.1 with a similar hardwa…

Why not get a new MBP if you want a work horse notebook. Yes im sure you can give me reasons but you should at least compare apples with apples.

Re: The desktop and the developer

#228

Post by dredmorbius » Wed, May 21, 2014, 5:14 AM UTC

imsofuture wrote: post #181

davexunit wrote: post #20

I've used OS X at work for the past 2 years and I completely disagree that OS X is nice for developers. I've had a lot of issues that I wouldn't have had if I was using a GNU/Linux distro like Debian. Major issues with GCC after certain updates, outdated GNU software like bash, brew is barely acceptable as a package manager (can't hold a candle to dpkg/apt), and I have to go to websites to get the installers for most…

Absolutely. I spent 3 years on MacBook Airs + OSX, and about a month ago, I just had finally had enough of the 'not-quite-right' development environment. Installed Ubuntu (on the MBA, it actually worked perfectly), and haven't looked back. All the things I'd learned to work-around, suddenly became non-issues, and all of a sudden I had a real window manager again.

Apple is really good at delivering a "sane defaults" desktop.

It is not, by definition, an "optimal for task" desktop.

I've used OS X off and on for much of the past decade. It's not a serious productivity platform.

Re: The desktop and the developer

#229

Post by cgore » Wed, May 21, 2014, 5:21 AM UTC

MattyRad wrote: post #173

I have been using Ubuntu as my sole desktop for the past 5 years (except when I play games on Windows), and have just landed a job that requires I use a Mac. It has been incredibly painful trying to do what is normally trivial in Linux. But to be fair, I realize that I'm the hardcore Linux user who still goes out of his way tweak every little detail with Compiz and ensure that my keyboard shortcuts are all explicitly…

I'm in a similar situation. My new job is an all-mac shop, which is funny because we are mostly writing software for Linux boxes out in the Internet. I didn't mind though, because they bought me about $5,200 worth of mac equipment to keep. I've been using BSD and then later Linux since 1999, and that was about the last time I used a mac, OS 7. I was expecting to somewhat dislike it, but they do Clojure and I wanted to go that way. I really have enjoyed the change though, and even bought an iPhone.

Re: The desktop and the developer

#230

Post by rdl » Wed, May 21, 2014, 5:22 AM UTC

Plenty of people moved from Linux and BSD to OSX for a wide variety of reasons, especially for laptops. I'd consider a non-mac workstation for serious desktop use, and OSX for servers is essentially insane (I actually have one mini in colo though, in addition to linux and freebsd servers). I've been using Unix OSes since ~1990, and a laptop since mid 1990s running Linux and FreeBSD.

90% of what I do is in terminal and in a web browser. Sublime Text gets a lot of the rest. But I still want Photoshop/Lightroom, Keynote, etc.

I generally use local VMs (I find VMware Fusion to be better than e.g. VirtualBox), but also use MacPorts. I wish I could get 32-64GB in a Mac laptop, though.