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The desktop and the developer

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Re: The desktop and the developer

#71

Post by chroma »

Many 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 remembering just how unimportant this arguing is. Just use what you like and don't put-down others for using what they like.

1. http://lesswrong.com/lw/dr/generalizing_from_one_example/

Re: The desktop and the developer

#72

Post by cmiles74 »

drb311 wrote: post #19

This line stood out for me: "They use an Apple because they don't want to use different hardware for work and pleasure." I'm not a coder, and I don't find the idea of a single machine for work and pleasure particularly appealing. Is there something about software developers that means they like to blur the line between home and work? Most of the developers I know enjoy coding, and have side projects that involve codi…

Everyone where I work is issued a pretty decent laptop. Mine's a Dell Latitude E6430. I'm allowed to do whatever I like with it; I'm a Java developer so I moved it to Linux and I run Windows in a VM for the things that might really need Windows.

My personal laptop pre-dates my current position and it's MacBook Pro that's starting to get older. When my family and I went on vacation last year, I brought both laptops and did most of my work on my personal machine. Still, dragging around two laptops seemed so silly and the Dell has more than enough hard drive space for everything.

Even though I liked the Mac (and OSX), I decided to consolidate everything on the Dell. For me Linux is "good enough" and the hassle of trying to remember what resource is on what machine is mental overhead I just don't need. I sometimes think about buying a new personal laptop, maybe a new Mac, but the cost just doesn't seem worth it.

Re: The desktop and the developer

#73

Post by Touche »

jrajav wrote: post #53

Missing a killer feature here, at least for me: High-DPI support. No environment on Linux deals with high-DPI adequately yet. Between that and the other big one mentioned in the article, multitouch trackpad support, there is simply no way I can compromise. There isn't really anything else tying me down to OS X, but those two are huge. They're the only major changes I've seen in my workflow and desktop experience in t…

Gnome 3 is pretty close for HiDPI. So all of the default applications look great. It's still a bit of an issue that Chrome and Firefox are almost unusable so I've been using Epiphany and liking that.

Re: The desktop and the developer

#74

Post by tatqx »

jrajav wrote: post #53

Missing a killer feature here, at least for me: High-DPI support. No environment on Linux deals with high-DPI adequately yet. Between that and the other big one mentioned in the article, multitouch trackpad support, there is simply no way I can compromise. There isn't really anything else tying me down to OS X, but those two are huge. They're the only major changes I've seen in my workflow and desktop experience in t…

High-DPI support in Ubuntu 14.04 is pretty good and it works great on the retina MacBook Pros.

Re: The desktop and the developer

#75

Post by wil421 »

I enjoy doing web development on my MBP it has everything I need Microsoft wise for work email and Lync. Terminal is great to work in and connecting to a remote server is a much better experience than in windows. Plus you have most of the unix commands you a already familiar with. I can easily create a new vm of whatever I need anytime I need to.

http://modern.ie actually has some VMs you can use to test IE 7,8,9 etc on OSX, or even linux and windows. That pretty much sealed the deal as far as windows dependencies. Although I am still stuck with a corporate VDI for some work items.

Re: The desktop and the developer

#76

Post by davexunit »

cs02rm0 wrote: post #38
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…

I use a macbook, but agree with you. Unfortunately as a piece of hardware it seems to me virtually unrivalled, the latest internal components are available to new machines promptly, they have great displays with loads of real estate, long battery life, very good manufacturer support and the 13" is a superb, thin form factor for travelling with. I run a cluster of Linux VMs on it using vagrant so it's just my browser,…

I don't really like the trends of laptop hardware these days, so my preference and yours differ greatly. I use hardware that's a few years old and is known to work well with fully free GNU/Linux operating systems. Shiny new tech (which usually requires proprietary firmware/drivers to function) doesn't appeal to me. There's this push to make laptops so unreasonably thin that they have to solder everything to the board and remove all user servicability to do it. I use a Thinkpad X220 currently and I am happy with it.

Re: The desktop and the developer

#77

Post by josephlord »

There are benefits in the develop and test on one platform (test again and) deploy on another. That way you naturally create portable software.

Also the difference between the developer's desktop and the deployment machine may be significant even if both are Linux there might be differences between the libraries and utilities so using a Mac doesn't necessarily make it harder.

Use what you are comfortable with. Having used a Linux desktop for a while I've switched to OS X for the moment, I spend less time setting it up and trying alternative DE's. I also develop for iOS so I need it for the moment. I am glad Linux is there if OS X development direction doesn't suit me in future and I have Linux on my home server which is what I would use if I wanted a current GCC.

Re: The desktop and the developer

#78

Post by tragic »

It's interesting to see the disparity between the comments here and on the post. Nearly everyone below the line on the post is a Linux refugee that's pitched up on a Mac. Here, not so much.

For my part, I have always had a deeply-rooted and entirely irrational hatred of Apple products. OK, the retina screens are nice. Trackpads are usable - but I hate trackpads anyway and always carry a proper mouse around, so no win there. (What happened to those little joystick-type thingies that used to stick out of laptop keyboards, anyway? I liked them.)

But I'm just about old enough to have mostly owned and used desktop PCs. And those desktop PCs have all been custom builds. I'm typing this on a slightly ramshackle Lenovo laptop, which is obviously not a custom build - but I can take the back off it and fool around if I so choose. I've never used particularly outre specialist components or anything; but in some fundamentally irrational way, having, in principle, an absolute say so on what's inside my computer is important to me. Apple's entire business model is antithetical to that. And while I see plenty of satisfied Apple customers among my friends and family, I also see them forking out endless money to Apple support for trivial fixes because of it.

(And I won't be buying Lenovo again, because I do not expect my BIOS to be password protected, and not be provided with the password. :-) )

Re: The desktop and the developer

#79

Post by davexunit »

Swizec wrote: post #25
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…

As someone who's been using OSX full-time for the past two years, and using it in conjuction with a Linux-based desktop computer for the previous ~5. Yes. Linux is insanely better for development. But OSX is just passable enough that the form-factor of an Apple laptop wins out and I can work. I don't want to go back to using two computers and OSX is _much_ better at everyday non-developer stuff than any Linux I've ev…

>Oh-My-Zsh

No, I like bash (or fish sometimes) with my own personal configuration that I fully understand. If I were to switch to zsh, I would just use zsh, and not a giant bundle of stuff that someone else thinks I need.

Re: The desktop and the developer

#80

Post by davexunit »

misnome wrote: post #26
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…

If you are caring about things like specific bash versions, then you probably don't fall into the category of people who don't want to micromanage every aspect of their system.

Apple refuses to update bash (and other GNU software) because they use the GPLv3, so all OS X users receive GNU software that is horribly out-of-date. Apple ships Emacs, but it's version 22.1 from 2007, and the current stable release is 24.3.
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