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Is primary OS a dealbreaker for you (when taking a new job)?

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Is primary OS a dealbreaker for you (when taking a new job)?

#1
I've had to switch to a different OS (on my dev machine) for my latest job.

I've primarily used Macs as a data engineer, but recently switched to Windows since that is what the rest of my team uses at my current job. The company I work for does support macs, but it is a small percentage of engineers.

I know this is a very nuanced conversation. In an ideal world, you should be able to choose which ever OS works best for you.

That said, I've typically taken the approach of "use whichever OS the rest of the team is using" since it isn't worth the battle of rewriting all the team-specific setup scripts for your given tech stack and development OS.

I wouldn't say Windows has been a "terrible" experience thanks to WSL2, but it has prevented me from using my standard suite of tools (clipboard manager, note taking app, etc.) that I am used to using.

I'll likely prioritize macOS over Windows going forward in my career due to my most recent experience but wouldn't go as far as calling it a dealbreaker.

I should probably reiterate: my goal of this post is to discuss "is primary OS a deal breaker for you" and not "which OS is the best."

Re: Is primary OS a dealbreaker for you (when taking a new job)?

#2
Yes, absolutely. I cannot do my job properly using Windows as it's been so long since I've used it and it tends to fight against a lot of the Unix paradigms I'm used to and need for containers and cloud engineering. Also, now that I've used an M1 Mac I also could not deal with the battery life on other machines

Re: Is primary OS a dealbreaker for you (when taking a new job)?

#3

Yes, absolutely. I cannot do my job properly using Windows as it's been so long since I've used it and it tends to fight against a lot of the Unix paradigms I'm used to and need for containers and cloud engineering. Also, now that I've used an M1 Mac I also could not deal with the battery life on other machines

[deleted]

Re: Is primary OS a dealbreaker for you (when taking a new job)?

#6
No I care more about if the job involves solving interesting/novel problems

Languages/OSs are just implementation details to me, I don't get why software engineers (especially junior ones) are so obsessed with them

To me algorithms/systems in the abstract sense are the actual interesting part of the job

Re: Is primary OS a dealbreaker for you (when taking a new job)?

#8
While I'd prefer to use an operating system other than Windows at work, the OS that a company uses isn't a deal breaker for me. Getting the job done, regardless of the software my employer mandates, having work that's is interesting and challenging is what matters most when it comes to the day job.

Currently, I work for a firm that's eyeballs deep in the Windows/Microsoft ecosystem which means I have a company laptop running Windows. I can get the job done and get a pay packet every two weeks.

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