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@iiii that's why using WSL is the best, you get linux problems AND windows problems at the same time!
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Ubuntu is a terrible OS for development. You have to remove all the bloat from the system for it to even function like a real Linux device.
Debian is just as bad IMO, they have turned "free software" into a type of toxic fetish now that makes it near impossible to get it to install the basic drivers/firmwares to function. I have had better luck installing Arch.
CentOS/Fedora, IBM has pretty much pulled an Oracle on it.
Take a look at Almalinux or Rocky Linux. They're really close to CentOS 8 (before IBM) and the community is just growing. Most tuts online for CentOS 8 will continue to work though.
They're the only Linux OSs that I've installed recently that "just worked" out of the box for workstations.
Downside, they both only support 4.18 kernel right now. If I remember that was last updated around 2019. You can upgrade to the latest kernels, but you risk breaking firmware support.
Still, if you're looking for a solid Linux device, I recommend giving Rocky or Alma a chance. -
@sariel I wish I could get a away with running Tiny Core Linux. It "big" distro is less than 200MB in size. It runs completely in ram and only writes to disk when explicitly told to through script or command line. It is designed for embedded, but boots really really fast.
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I find MacOS to be a very flexible, usable desktop, as long as it's not locked down by my employer. I managed to keep jamf permanently killed on my old work mac, because its deployment was half-assed. On my current mac for work, it's not so easy, and I don't want to make waves on that front, with a new job.
As for which Linux distro does or doesn't make a good dev desktop, I have never understood the argument. Window handling, web browsing, and terminal emulation is all I need. For me, that's bspwm, firefox and vivaldi, and alacritty. I don't really know what else people are looking for. I suppose maybe they might want to glom up their workflow with a big heavy IDE, but even that doesn't have anything to do with the distro you choose. -
So Apple seems to suck even more than Microsoft these days?
I remember using a Macbook at work. Still better than Windows, but not as configurable as Linux, just to make that clear.
Workarounds against Apple madness: used to install most apps with a command line tool (probably Homebrew or MacPorts) and still using most web apps, like Slack, Teams, Spotify etc. in a web browser.
But you probably needed to install XCode once, and you won't get around the annoying "you must log into your iCloud account" login windows even after you managed to make an Apple ID account. -
@fraktalisman Microsoft is attempting to push Windows S which is microsoft store only (I know its easy to change to regular version). Which would be Windows (S)ucks version.
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@iiii basically everything sucks
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It's been linux for me since the beginning I tweak my system too much to care for proprietary systems ,
tried windows, tried discount linux( mac ) and I always go back to linux, and afaik ubuntu is better than both mac or windows( if you burn the shitshow that is snaps ).
Try finding any os with a more informed community than linux , i dare you, you have an issue someone somewhere has tried it -
@EpicofGilgamesh
This is why I always mock armchair marketers on r/linux_gaming and put mArKeT ShArE in mixed case. Linux users are far more engaged in testing and early access, as they are invested in the platform. So they give far better and more comprehensive feedback. So the tired old mArKeT ShArE nonsense is completely moot. -
@darksideofyay life is suffering
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@bahua market share as a metric just informs us about what we already know, majority of the people are stupid
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@bahua the distro is only as important as your hardware.
Some distros just run better on specific hardware out of the box. You would need to be a hardcore Linux engineer to fix your arch install on your ancient x86 HP from 2001, or you could just install an old version of opensuse or Fedora.
I always tell developers who want to make the switch to Linux, "choose your hardware wisely". Find a couple device models you're interested in and search Reddit for folks who installed your distro of choice before you even buy the device.
I spent almost $3000 on my XPS 9560 in Aug 2018. It's maxed out, still runs perfectly for what I need it to do. Unless it dies, I won't be upgrading for another 5 or more years. I checked to make sure how well it was supported before buying it. I also waited a year before buying it so the support was there for it.
If you have a device that will run Linux, go for it. Not all hardware is supported though and as the Linux ops mantra goes, your milage may vary. -
@sariel
Maybe this is insensitive of me, but I don't think it's especially likely that any dev is using twenty year old hardware for serious development. Or if they are, they cannot reasonably expect support and performance from any operating system.
Even so, I would be more concerned about new hardware than old. -
@bahua I know plenty of devs that are using older hardware that have to maintain older codebases written in Fortran or have to support HPUX/iSeries.
Sure, they don't have to but the tools they've been using for over 20+ years run on older hardware.
Why not! 😂
Can't wait for this to happen
As a long-time iPhone user, I am really sorry to say it but I think Apple has completed their transition to be...
God I fucking hate macs.
I got a mac at work. I tried to install ubuntu, with rather questionable results (unfortunately, I expected that) - so I tried to get mac work for me the way I like a system to work. I needed to download slack, simple enough, right? Ha, you wish. It's gotta be done through Apple store, so I went to create an Apple ID inside the Apple Store form. And, well, it just errored out on the submission. Great start. I went then to the settings and created an account there, great success, went back to Apple Store. Unfortunately being logged in at the system level doesn't mean you are logged in to the store. So, I went to log in to the store, simple enough, right? No, nothing's simple with Apple. After logging in I got a message that the Apple ID has not yet been used with Apple Store and that I need to review the account's setting. So, I click the "review" button and... I'm presented with a log in form. Yep, a perfect log in loop. I can't log in because I can't review the account but I can't review the account because I can't log in. Fun :)
You can't just go to the web admin panel for your account to review it for Apple Store, that would too be too easy. After a bit of searching I've found an answer on StackOverflow. You need to log in to iTunes. Through a fucking MUSIC APP. To install a free application from the store you need to log in to a music app. Yes, we're all mad here.
Then, after finding out that to be able to use side buttons on my mouse I need an app that I need to manually restart every time I restart the machine and that I need to have an app to fucking transfer files from an android I need another fucking app, because reading a storage of a linux-based system would be too standards compliant - something in me broke. I found out that installing windows on a mac is officially supported.
Supported doesn't mean that it's easy. I tried to install it trying different solutions from SO, but each time I would get an error that Windows couldn't modify the boot partition. Turns out that even wiping the drive and reinstalling OSX doesn't remove residual files on a boot partition and Windows installer is not allowed to modify them. It took me hunting into some shady looking site to actually find this answer. I have no fucking idea how long it all took me, but, finally, great success, Windows, WSL, side buttons working, I can even install slack from an installer. I just wish I could have those hours of my life back.
rant
osx
apple