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We use it on servers, so it makes sense to use it on the desktop too for maximum dev familiarity and compatibility, since it now works well there... I am alway

We use it on servers, so it makes sense to use it on the desktop too for maximum dev familiarity and compatibility, since it now works well there... I am always surprised by these things. I mean, even trying to use something widely-used (nowadays) as Zoom, basically gives me two options (on a HiDPI screen): - Use X11, but when I share a window and use drawing tools, whatever I draw is displaced by a seemingly constant offset. It's caused by scaling for HiDPI, because if I disable scaling, things work. - Use Wayland, but I can only share the whole screen. Drawing works, but the overlay is incredibly flaky and often incorrectly registers clicks. Besides that on both Wayland and X11, doing video call makes the fans blow at full speed and quickly drains the battery when a laptop is not hooked up (probably no hardware acceleration of video encoding/decoding). Oh, and I probably want to use a wired headphone, because using a BlueTooth headsets regularly dropout. Zoom is just a single example, but there are just so many paper cuts if you want to work outside a solo developer context. (Windows has a lot of issues as well, but at least basic workflows generally work.)

tomxor 5y ago
Zoom does seem to be a piece of crap, but it lets you use the browser which seems to be less bad on linux. At my work we all use google meets and only zoom for some external customers, the experience seems to be much worse with zoom in general regardless of the OS - that said it seems to work ok on Linux in the browser - once you actually get into the meeting, that's the hardest and worst UX experience ever (getting into the meeting). I haven't used HiDPI monitors on linux yet, being able to use linux easily is more important to me for dev, it's a known area of weakness, and I just don't need the extra pixels for dev so it's easier to just avoid it. If you are doing graphics linux is probably not the best OS for the job tbh, and that's a shame but just the way it is currently. > Zoom is just a single example, but there are just so many paper cuts if you want to work outside a solo developer context. I suppose it depends upon how much crap software the workplace forces upon their workers, I understand that it's often mandatory to use a bunch of proprietary software for various types of communication and management stuff.. i.e stuff that's not central to actual dev work. If you can get away with a browser, then it's not bad at all... and when there is an option for a native version, use the browser, because usually it's some horrific electron thing that's even worse.
- danieldk 5y ago
  At my work we all use google meets and only zoom for some external customers, the experience seems to be much worse with zoom in general regardless of the OS I strongly disagree. Zoom on macOS and macOS works very well (I currently use it for a remote course). My experiences have been far far better than Teams, Google Meet, Skype, Jitsi etc. Most of which I have had to use for work or private. My wife is hoping that her employer will relent sometime and offer Zoom, because she prefers it so much over Google Meet, whatever Blackboard uses, etc. It could be that your experience is colored by the Zoom web interface, which I only used once on Linux and it was terrible then. I haven't used HiDPI monitors on linux yet, being able to use linux easily is more important to me for dev, it's a known area of weakness, and I just don't need the extra pixels for dev so it's easier to just avoid it. For me it's one of those things that can't be unseen. I have happily used lo-DPI screens for decades, but since I can't really stand lo-DPI screens anymore since I had my first retina MacBook. Even though I am doing development 80% of the time, I want my fonts to be crisp. If you can get away with a browser, then it's not bad at all... and when there is an option for a native version, use the browser, because usually it's some horrific electron thing that's even worse. I guess that's true on Linux. Unfortunately, very few web apps beat native applications like OmniGraffle, the Affinity Suite, or even PowerPoint.
  - tomxor 5y ago
    ok, but all of your use cases and priorities are so far away from the original premise of the article that's it's clear your needs are more inline with a regular mac or windows user than a "hacker" or dev... (just saying) it's not for everyone. Also which video conferencing app "is the worst" seems to be pretty subjective, but tbh they are all pretty crappy and replaceable, i'm not really sure what this has to do with OS choice.
- pjmlp 5y ago
  > i.e stuff that's not central to actual dev work. For developers that only care about POSIX CLI and daemons, others from us actually don't care about it and do graphics and GUI programming, where the screens and GPGPUs play a big role. Yes, it is central to our actual dev work.

tomxor 5y ago

Zoom does seem to be a piece of crap, but it lets you use the browser which seems to be less bad on linux. At my work we all use google meets and only zoom for some external customers, the experience seems to be much worse with zoom in general regardless of the OS - that said it seems to work ok on Linux in the browser - once you actually get into the meeting, that's the hardest and worst UX experience ever (getting into the meeting). I haven't used HiDPI monitors on linux yet, being able to use linux easily is more important to me for dev, it's a known area of weakness, and I just don't need the extra pixels for dev so it's easier to just avoid it. If you are doing graphics linux is probably not the best OS for the job tbh, and that's a shame but just the way it is currently. > Zoom is just a single example, but there are just so many paper cuts if you want to work outside a solo developer context. I suppose it depends upon how much crap software the workplace forces upon their workers, I understand that it's often mandatory to use a bunch of proprietary software for various types of communication and management stuff.. i.e stuff that's not central to actual dev work. If you can get away with a browser, then it's not bad at all... and when there is an option for a native version, use the browser, because usually it's some horrific electron thing that's even worse.

danieldk 5y ago
At my work we all use google meets and only zoom for some external customers, the experience seems to be much worse with zoom in general regardless of the OS I strongly disagree. Zoom on macOS and macOS works very well (I currently use it for a remote course). My experiences have been far far better than Teams, Google Meet, Skype, Jitsi etc. Most of which I have had to use for work or private. My wife is hoping that her employer will relent sometime and offer Zoom, because she prefers it so much over Google Meet, whatever Blackboard uses, etc. It could be that your experience is colored by the Zoom web interface, which I only used once on Linux and it was terrible then. I haven't used HiDPI monitors on linux yet, being able to use linux easily is more important to me for dev, it's a known area of weakness, and I just don't need the extra pixels for dev so it's easier to just avoid it. For me it's one of those things that can't be unseen. I have happily used lo-DPI screens for decades, but since I can't really stand lo-DPI screens anymore since I had my first retina MacBook. Even though I am doing development 80% of the time, I want my fonts to be crisp. If you can get away with a browser, then it's not bad at all... and when there is an option for a native version, use the browser, because usually it's some horrific electron thing that's even worse. I guess that's true on Linux. Unfortunately, very few web apps beat native applications like OmniGraffle, the Affinity Suite, or even PowerPoint.
- tomxor 5y ago
  ok, but all of your use cases and priorities are so far away from the original premise of the article that's it's clear your needs are more inline with a regular mac or windows user than a "hacker" or dev... (just saying) it's not for everyone. Also which video conferencing app "is the worst" seems to be pretty subjective, but tbh they are all pretty crappy and replaceable, i'm not really sure what this has to do with OS choice.
pjmlp 5y ago
> i.e stuff that's not central to actual dev work. For developers that only care about POSIX CLI and daemons, others from us actually don't care about it and do graphics and GUI programming, where the screens and GPGPUs play a big role. Yes, it is central to our actual dev work.