3 ms·

As someone who made the same jump, Windows wasn't really a viable platform for non-dotNet developers until that happened. The state of Linux on the desktop is,

As someone who made the same jump, Windows wasn't really a viable platform for non-dotNet developers until that happened. The state of Linux on the desktop is, frankly, a disaster — I spent months on trying to make it work, but wow, it's not worth the time.

joosebox 9y ago
Linux on Windows is still a disaster? It's been something I want to play around with but haven't had the chance yet.
- ranqet 9y ago
  The fact that there is a wall between the Linux stuff and Windows stuff (“You can't edit a file that originates from the Linux userland inside Windows.”) sounds very hacky to me.
  - walshemj 9y ago
    Just do a samba share from the Linux vm to windows
    - tracker1 9y ago
      It's not a VM, it's like the inverse of WINE... it's a compatibility layer... and that one piece (not being able to edit files in the LSW from windows/gui) is what keeps me off of it.
      - walshemj 9y ago
        Oh why not use windows pro and hyper-v then and run a Linux vm then that's assuming you don't run a small whitebox server to do your dev on?
        tracker1 9y ago
        I do.. and samba to use a GUI editor against files in the VM. That said, there's the overhead of a full VM... some of the same reasons one would use WINE instead of a full Windows VM.
- andimm 9y ago
  I read it as a standalone Linux on Desktop is a disaster. Not Linux on Windows.
  - walshemj 9y ago
    Hardly a disaster ok open office isn't as good as Office but its a perfectly workable solution.
pjmlp 9y ago
Windows has been a viable platform for software development since always. I have been developing Windows software since Windows 3.1 and my first UNIX was Xenix, followed by DG/UX, Aix and many other variants. Windows is perfectly viable developer OS for C++, Delphi, Tcl/TK, Perl, Python, Java and .NET developers. Microsoft did a mistake not following up on Windows NT POSIX support, because that is what many care about is POSIX shell utilities and C APIs, the actual kernel is irrelevant. However now GNU/Windows fixes that problem.
- dingo_bat 9y ago
  > GNU/Windows I LOL'ed.
  - mattfrommars 9y ago
    +1 That's crazy.
- walshemj 9y ago
  Exactly I spent many years with a windows desk top as my pc developing for Solaris and before that Primos (an ITS derived os) and for Unisys A Series mainframes.
cr0sh 9y ago
I must be doing something wrong. I've been using Linux for my primary desktop since 1995 (started with TurboLinux 2.0, then jumped to RH v5.2). Was it a cakewalk over the year? No. Even today there are times where I'm in WTF mode about something or another (my favorite is when I do an update to the NVidia drivers and it borks my system hard enough I have to restore my X config in some manner or another at the command line because I have custom crap in it). But I don't regret anything about my 2+ decade decision to ditch Windows.

joosebox 9y ago

Linux on Windows is still a disaster? It's been something I want to play around with but haven't had the chance yet.

ranqet 9y ago
The fact that there is a wall between the Linux stuff and Windows stuff (“You can't edit a file that originates from the Linux userland inside Windows.”) sounds very hacky to me.
- walshemj 9y ago
  Just do a samba share from the Linux vm to windows
  - tracker1 9y ago
    It's not a VM, it's like the inverse of WINE... it's a compatibility layer... and that one piece (not being able to edit files in the LSW from windows/gui) is what keeps me off of it.
    - walshemj 9y ago
      Oh why not use windows pro and hyper-v then and run a Linux vm then that's assuming you don't run a small whitebox server to do your dev on?
      - tracker1 9y ago
        I do.. and samba to use a GUI editor against files in the VM. That said, there's the overhead of a full VM... some of the same reasons one would use WINE instead of a full Windows VM.
andimm 9y ago
I read it as a standalone Linux on Desktop is a disaster. Not Linux on Windows.
- walshemj 9y ago
  Hardly a disaster ok open office isn't as good as Office but its a perfectly workable solution.

pjmlp 9y ago

Windows has been a viable platform for software development since always. I have been developing Windows software since Windows 3.1 and my first UNIX was Xenix, followed by DG/UX, Aix and many other variants. Windows is perfectly viable developer OS for C++, Delphi, Tcl/TK, Perl, Python, Java and .NET developers. Microsoft did a mistake not following up on Windows NT POSIX support, because that is what many care about is POSIX shell utilities and C APIs, the actual kernel is irrelevant. However now GNU/Windows fixes that problem.

dingo_bat 9y ago
> GNU/Windows I LOL'ed.
- mattfrommars 9y ago
  +1 That's crazy.
walshemj 9y ago
Exactly I spent many years with a windows desk top as my pc developing for Solaris and before that Primos (an ITS derived os) and for Unisys A Series mainframes.

cr0sh 9y ago

I must be doing something wrong. I've been using Linux for my primary desktop since 1995 (started with TurboLinux 2.0, then jumped to RH v5.2). Was it a cakewalk over the year? No. Even today there are times where I'm in WTF mode about something or another (my favorite is when I do an update to the NVidia drivers and it borks my system hard enough I have to restore my X config in some manner or another at the command line because I have custom crap in it). But I don't regret anything about my 2+ decade decision to ditch Windows.