[meta-rant]

I don't get all of the OS hate here. Like, computers, and the variety of environments in which users use them, are our job. In my mind, Linux is popular, Windows is popular, macOS is popular—if I want to make it as a developer, shouldn't I understand how all three work and how to make them work for me?

When I read stuff here, I feel like there are people here who would think less of me because of what OS I prefer. That sentiment is kind of bothersome.

People have to feel better than others somehow.

Actually, that sentiment is on the immature and childish side, which is sad coming from people who profess to be technologists. The round and round arguments of which is better is pointless, all OS's have the good points and bad points.

I thought that all OS trashing talk was just a joke.

@pajaja whenever I get involved, I certainly don't mean it with any authority. It's kinda useful to jostle the debate about anyway: people bitch about features they hate in their rival OS, and future generations have a zeitgeist to follow for improvements. Also it's fun, really really fun (sometimes).

@daveslater we should start a rant where you should mention your favorite OS, and then mention all the things you don't like about it.

Might be much more fun.

As a person who has worked on all 3 of them, here's my take:

Windows is great, but since production environments rarely use Windows for platforms like PHP or Python, it really doesn't make sense to work on Windows with those platforms, the server is a VM, in which case it doesn't matter at all what you're using, unless you're into debugging.

Linux is awesome, but of course not if you're using elements of the MS stack. To be fair, the MS stack is amazing. MSSQL is arguably the most amazing RDBMS, and .NET performance is second only to bytecode (Rust, C++, C) and Java, but is much easier to write. So you're giving up some of that by using Linux.

Mac.
...
Why?
Only if you have a macbook, because only Mac OS can handle macbooks properly. But as a developer, unless you're coding iOS apps, everything is harder to do on a Mac, and you gotta pay for everything a lot more. But hey! if you like it then whatever floats your boat.

@apisarenco welcome to devRant!

@apisarenco "unless you're coding IOS apps, everything is harder on a Mac"

That is a brutally untrue statement.

@GigaMick how is that? In Linux you have colors in the terminal out of the box. On Mac you have to do voodoo magic for that. In Linux you can easily find extended documentation for commands like sed, that actually work for developers and aren't stuck in 1980. In Linux, grep can operate with PCRE, while on a mac you need to install extensions. On Linux, your nano installation is built-in and has syntax highlighting. On Mac - good luck with that. On Linux you have extremely fast and universal editors like Geany, on Mac - good luck with that, as Geany's port is crap, and everything else you have to pay for, or starts up in ages, and crashes your computer when you open a huge JSON. Oh, and you have to pay for it probably. In Linux, installing and old version of something is simply like navigating to a repo that has it, downloading and installing it. On Mac, homebrew constantly outdates its functionality without replacing it, so good luck installing old versions of Tomcat for example.

@GigaMick I'm not done yet.

On a mac, if I went to a toilet, all of my SSH and DB connections were killed, even with keepalive settings - same settings that make it work on Linux for days without any annoying disconnects. On Linux, you can simply automount an SSH server to a directory using a line in /etc/fstab . On a mac - good luck with that. In Linux you get to specify OS-specific key sequences any way you like, so they don't interfere with what you do. On a mac, searching through all files in Atom suddenly calls the Find on my mac dialog. And calling dev tools on browsers - holy shit is it backwards or what? On Linux you have window snapping on all high-end desktop environments. On a mac you need to buy an extension for that. Oh and can I please see directories first in the GUI?

So what DOES work well on a mac? Well power efficiency, I'll give it that. Font smoothing and HIDPI is up to level. Terminal emulator background blur won me over (as I didn't care so much for Compiz).

@GigaMick so, the general idea is that Mac's POSIX commands are stuck in time, while GNU has been moving forward to accommodate developers and power users alike, in ways that don't even come close to what Mac is offering. Sure you can get some of that on a Mac with extensions and stuff, with added homebrew packages, modified bash_profile or whatever, and other tweaks, but it still doesn't get quite there.

The ONLY way for a developer to work well on it, is if that said developer doesn't really do any advanced tasks. Development, git, short-term projects, frequent platform updates, etc. The VERY MOMENT I tried to step out of that frame, I got slapped in the face hard, and it was a heartwarming feeling when I saw a disfigured GTK3 interface trying to cope with my Mac while its fans span out of control. Heartwarming simply because I knew, that now I have finally regained control over my computer, and I can finally waste not hours, but just single minutes.

@GigaMick Oh, and sorry for the TL;DR here, but even the GUI part of the Mac sucks. Really have you tried installing OpenOffice or LibreOffice? I don't want Microsoft's office, especially when importing a CSV into it takes 3 times longer. Can I please get separate programs instead of just one? Seriously!
And what about multi-screen? As soon as I unplug my laptop from them to go to a meeting and go back, I need to spend 5 hours looking for that damn native Mail app, while every other app window has gone to some far corners of the galaxy. And when I scroll through a lot of code in Eclipse - I haven't seen a slower machine than that of Mac. Can I have a decent image viewer that won't waste any screen real estate and will let me navigate to next/prev image? Oh I have to buy that?! And it STILL is crap?

... and I'm still not done

Without me activating anything, it started syncing all of my files to iCloud. What the hell?!

@apisarenco Dude, I'm sorry you've had such a terrible experience with Macs, because I develop on Mac at work and I've learned to love it. But I'm also glad that you have enough experience to know what works for you--and what doesn't.

That's my point. We should be celebrating dev's successes (as well as supporting in failure) no matter what environment they use or prefer. And, for example, if someone who prefers Linux doesn't know how to answer a Windows question, they shouldn't fucking answer, "it's because you use Windows." It lacks creativity, it's unhelpful, and it encourages separation within the dev community.

@paco the thing is, I LOVE Windows for what it does best. There are certain software development domains where no other OS other than Windows would satisfy the needs. Most of it is due to the vast and rich Microsoft infrastructure. Another part is just the myriad of devices and scientific equipment that just don't work on any other OS.

However, while developing with multiplatform languages, I have found no objective reason why Mac would be better. ONLY in terms of hardware, and that has recently been surpassed by Dell and Asus.

I totally get why people use Macs in their day-to-day life. As a portable device they're wonderful for some quick web nav, document editing, and stuff, especially with their trackpads. But as a multi-platform developer, they are just objectively inferior in every single way, to a thin 1080p laptop with a good CPU and lots of RAM.

@apisarenco I'm not even gonna argue with you man. That was some relevant shit right there. Real examples backed up with real data and actual, actionable comparisons.

🤘

I salute you sir.