I'm not ashamed to admit it. I use OSX over linux because it's prettier.
The desktop and the developer
241–250 of 304 posts
Re: The desktop and the developer
#242Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
> It's not a serious productivity platform.
To whom? If your customers are Mac users, it sure is.
Re: The desktop and the developer
#243Many are baffled that OS X is so popular among developers. Likewise, many OS X users don't understand why someone would deal with Linux on a laptop. Those who do this are committing the typical mind fallacy[1]. Not everyone has the same preferences. One might as well be confused that some people like vanilla more than chocolate. I think many commenters in this thread could benefit from taking a step back and remember…
I think a lot of it isn't actually genuine bewilderment. I've met developers who don't understand the point of a GUI when command line is "so much faster."
Re: The desktop and the developer
#244I'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 Major issues with GCC after certain updates, outdated GNU software like bash, brew is barely acceptable as a package manager (can't hold a candle to dpkg/apt), and I have to go to websites to get the installers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…
"I see developers with macbooks all the time" - some people buy them just for the quality hardware and install Windows straight away.
You can see this a lot at GDC.
There are lots of people carrying Macs, but since the games industry is strongly Windows focused, those Macs are actually running Windows on them.
Re: The desktop and the developer
#245Many are baffled that OS X is so popular among developers. Likewise, many OS X users don't understand why someone would deal with Linux on a laptop. Those who do this are committing the typical mind fallacy[1]. Not everyone has the same preferences. One might as well be confused that some people like vanilla more than chocolate. I think many commenters in this thread could benefit from taking a step back and remember…
I think a lot of it isn't actually genuine bewilderment. I've met developers who don't understand the point of a GUI when command line is "so much faster."
People that still use a PDP-11 I imagine.
Re: The desktop and the developer
#246I 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…
> I just don't get how OSX is so popular with a developers.
OS X and iOS users also need software that someone has to write.
Re: The desktop and the developer
#247I 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…
Because I have a data center full of nodes for when I need horsepower and a big fancy desktop with multiple monitors and a desk and a chair and a keyboard for when I need do serious development. What I want out of a laptop is a great form factor, solid battery life, a good keyboard, a large trackpad, a web browser and a real terminal. I own a 13-inch MacBook Air, it cost $1000 brand new, so no I didn't pay any premium for what I got. If you disagree please link equivalent specced hardware with a fully aluminum unibody case, high quality backlit keyboard, large trackpad with multitouch that has equivalent weight, screen size, and battery life. It does not break more often than it should, in fact it has never broken at all. The screen is not overly shiny and it fits my code just fine. But hey, you're already convinced otherwise so why bother.
Re: The desktop and the developer
#248Earlier 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; There are some popular linux distros out there that have rolling updates so you never have to reinstall the os.
Which tend to break the whole OS every now and then.
Re: The desktop and the developer
#249I'm not sure what to think of this blog post. Do anyone really recognize himself or herself in the described developers? It's not even about Mac OS X vs GNU/Linux, I'm not using any desktop environment on my computers (no Gnome, KDE, XFCE, …), my graphical environment is composed of a minimal windows manager and a small taskbar. I don't need anything else. I just checked and I don't even have a graphical file browser…
I have been using GUI based OS since the Amiga. And IDEs since Turbo products on MS-DOS.
One of my hobbies on GNU/Linux systems, since the early days (1994) was to get GUI tooling for my work.
Most of them taken from the more mature UNIX systems, back then.
For me the CLI is only for quick and dirty operations file operations, or calling build tools. 90% of my time I live on the GUI.
Re: The desktop and the developer
#250Earlier 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.
Except for my years at CERN and a small startup on my early career days, all the companies I worked for used Windows systems.
If we had to target UNIX systems, the development was done via XWindows or telnet/ssh to common build servers.