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"Trying to switch to Linux" - I've been on and off Linux desktops for 15 years. At one point the free C++ development setup was better there than on Windows. Th

by fsloth 10y ago

"Trying to switch to Linux" - I've been on and off Linux desktops for 15 years. At one point the free C++ development setup was better there than on Windows. That ship sailed, Windows with Visual Studio community edition is too good not to use. It's best to think of Linux as a professional utility. It runs my phone, my file server, my backups, but the only time I want to see it on desktop is when I need to do weird things with PDF:s - this is when bash and the libre pdf tools on Ubuntu provide the fastest solution usually. Value wise - the computer is kinda useless unless used for value added work. What that value is, depends, but for me writing code and art is more valuable than tweaking with config files. The only times my Linux systems seem to work without inflicting heartburns to me is when it's been provided and configured by a commercial third party, running on hardware provided by the said third party. So it seems to me for trouble free computing-as-a-utility experience one needs a complete system with commercial backing. This is anecdotal, of course.

paulmd 10y ago
If all you need is some quick command-line tools, Cygwin may be right for you (ask your doctor today!). You get POSIX abstractions around your Windows environment/filesystem/etc. I use it every day at work. It's not perfect, but a surprisingly large amount of command-line stuff will run just fine, particularly Python/Perl/anything with its own package management. VS Community Edition is really fantastic, though MS VC++ of course has its own slightly different, not-entirely-compliant take on the C++ standards.
pfranz 10y ago
"It's best to think of Linux as a professional utility." I guess it fits into that box. I use OSX as my desktop at home, but I would 100% go with some Linux before going back to Windows at home. I switched to a Windows job after using Linux for 10years--I really miss using Linux. At first I thought it was a familiarity thing and dove all into powershell and the like, but I the solutions for Windows seems awkward, slow, and clunky. We're probably getting very different "value adds" from Windows vs Linux. I liked Visual Studios' debugger, but I mostly compile other's code (libraries) and write glue-code in things like Python or munge data via the command line. I abhor editors that take 5+ seconds to launch (vi generally loads in much less than 1 second) and using command line tools to compile means I can script and chain things together, or easily run them on a remote computer. As for desktop use at home, I mostly use Internet, Word processor, spreadsheets, and tinker. OSX and google docs fits most of those use-cases.
- fsloth 10y ago
  "We're probably getting very different "value adds" from Windows vs Linux." This. The spectrum of computer uses is so wide that the only obviously wrong statement is to claim a specific system will undoubtedly fit all users needs. I am personally responsible for several small DLL C++ projects at work and have visual studio solutions open to them all of the time so start up time is not something I care about. So, for me the OS mostly fades into the background. Grepping through filedirectories is essential for my work. Windows vanilla tools generally suck for this but one fixes that by using a third party exe - in this instance, AgentRansack. I agree, I would much rather use bash and posix tools for the sort of problems that those are used than what is available on vanilla windows.

by fsloth 10y ago

paulmd 10y ago

If all you need is some quick command-line tools, Cygwin may be right for you (ask your doctor today!). You get POSIX abstractions around your Windows environment/filesystem/etc. I use it every day at work. It's not perfect, but a surprisingly large amount of command-line stuff will run just fine, particularly Python/Perl/anything with its own package management. VS Community Edition is really fantastic, though MS VC++ of course has its own slightly different, not-entirely-compliant take on the C++ standards.

pfranz 10y ago

"It's best to think of Linux as a professional utility." I guess it fits into that box. I use OSX as my desktop at home, but I would 100% go with some Linux before going back to Windows at home. I switched to a Windows job after using Linux for 10years--I really miss using Linux. At first I thought it was a familiarity thing and dove all into powershell and the like, but I the solutions for Windows seems awkward, slow, and clunky. We're probably getting very different "value adds" from Windows vs Linux. I liked Visual Studios' debugger, but I mostly compile other's code (libraries) and write glue-code in things like Python or munge data via the command line. I abhor editors that take 5+ seconds to launch (vi generally loads in much less than 1 second) and using command line tools to compile means I can script and chain things together, or easily run them on a remote computer. As for desktop use at home, I mostly use Internet, Word processor, spreadsheets, and tinker. OSX and google docs fits most of those use-cases.

fsloth 10y ago
"We're probably getting very different "value adds" from Windows vs Linux." This. The spectrum of computer uses is so wide that the only obviously wrong statement is to claim a specific system will undoubtedly fit all users needs. I am personally responsible for several small DLL C++ projects at work and have visual studio solutions open to them all of the time so start up time is not something I care about. So, for me the OS mostly fades into the background. Grepping through filedirectories is essential for my work. Windows vanilla tools generally suck for this but one fixes that by using a third party exe - in this instance, AgentRansack. I agree, I would much rather use bash and posix tools for the sort of problems that those are used than what is available on vanilla windows.