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Haven't upgraded to OSX Lion and probably won't purchase MacBook anymore in the future (I currently own a 13" MBP). Setting up development environment in Linux

Haven't upgraded to OSX Lion and probably won't purchase MacBook anymore in the future (I currently own a 13" MBP). Setting up development environment in Linux seems more sane not just for Python but for almost everything else (Java, Ruby, typical LAMP stack) except if you're doing iOS development.

jnoller 15y ago
I only do Linux/web development; and it never really bothered me. Of course, I'm doing Python development, which means I rarely run into issues (and if I do, homebrew fixes them easily). I also run VMware fusion with Ubuntu/Fedora VMs for deployment testing. And throw in about 4 windows VMs for IE/compat testing to boot. So, I disagree that it's "more sane" - I spend plenty of time chasing down crazy outdated versions of Python libraries the apt/yum repos contain, etc, and well, I don't like spending my time in linux window managers (I dislike the UI) so it's a wash, and getting a linux dev environment setup on my mac is as simple as booting a VM and swapping it into fullscreen. But to each their own. If I wasn't running OSX, I'd be running Linux. I just prefer one OS' aesthetics over another. See also Vagrant (http://vagrantup.com/ http://vagrantup.com/) - runs off of virtualbox if VMWare isn't your thing.
- hello_moto 15y ago
  At some point in time in my life (I don't know when), I started to ignore the UI of various OSes. Most of my time I spent in an IDE, browsers, and occasionally a communication software (Outlook, LotusNotes, e-mail client, whichever floats). On the other hand, I thought people install Python libraries either directly downloading the distributions or via easy_install? I never install modules from apt/yum.
  - jnoller 15y ago
    shrug - Like I said, it's a matter of aesthetics and usability for me. I've never met a Linux UI I liked (except for XFCE a long time ago), and I go out of my way not to use non-native apps on OSX. It's all about personal preference. I also dabble in design and UI/UX, and have for some time, maybe that's why. ps. easy_install is bad for you, use pip! http://www.pip-installer.org/en/latest/index.html http://www.pip-installer.org/en/latest/index.html
  - cdavid 15y ago
    It depends on the communities. For web developers, which depend on few compiled dependencies, this works well. For some other communities, like scipy community, not so much. Incidentally, mac os x is the worst platform to support ATM in that aspect, because of incompatibilities between OS X versions, python versions (mac os x vs python.org, all ABI incompatible), etc... Even windows is easier to handle at this point.
mark_l_watson 15y ago
I sort of agree with you, at least in the past. I used to run Linux as dual boot on my MacBooks and any Windows laptops. However, life became simpler for me (a good thing!) when I just started running OS X and switched from leased servers to EC2s. I mostly code in Clojure, Java, and Ruby so it really doesn't matter much which OS is on my laptop.
- hello_moto 15y ago
  There are 2 problems with Java and OSX for me (none of them are huge issues probably) 1) OSX version vs public version 2) Java SE API source code (you have to do some tinkering before you can browse the source code of JDK classes using your favourite short-cut keys provided by your favourite IDE).

jnoller 15y ago

I only do Linux/web development; and it never really bothered me. Of course, I'm doing Python development, which means I rarely run into issues (and if I do, homebrew fixes them easily). I also run VMware fusion with Ubuntu/Fedora VMs for deployment testing. And throw in about 4 windows VMs for IE/compat testing to boot. So, I disagree that it's "more sane" - I spend plenty of time chasing down crazy outdated versions of Python libraries the apt/yum repos contain, etc, and well, I don't like spending my time in linux window managers (I dislike the UI) so it's a wash, and getting a linux dev environment setup on my mac is as simple as booting a VM and swapping it into fullscreen. But to each their own. If I wasn't running OSX, I'd be running Linux. I just prefer one OS' aesthetics over another. See also Vagrant (http://vagrantup.com/ http://vagrantup.com/) - runs off of virtualbox if VMWare isn't your thing.

hello_moto 15y ago
At some point in time in my life (I don't know when), I started to ignore the UI of various OSes. Most of my time I spent in an IDE, browsers, and occasionally a communication software (Outlook, LotusNotes, e-mail client, whichever floats). On the other hand, I thought people install Python libraries either directly downloading the distributions or via easy_install? I never install modules from apt/yum.
- jnoller 15y ago
  shrug - Like I said, it's a matter of aesthetics and usability for me. I've never met a Linux UI I liked (except for XFCE a long time ago), and I go out of my way not to use non-native apps on OSX. It's all about personal preference. I also dabble in design and UI/UX, and have for some time, maybe that's why. ps. easy_install is bad for you, use pip! http://www.pip-installer.org/en/latest/index.html http://www.pip-installer.org/en/latest/index.html
- cdavid 15y ago
  It depends on the communities. For web developers, which depend on few compiled dependencies, this works well. For some other communities, like scipy community, not so much. Incidentally, mac os x is the worst platform to support ATM in that aspect, because of incompatibilities between OS X versions, python versions (mac os x vs python.org, all ABI incompatible), etc... Even windows is easier to handle at this point.

mark_l_watson 15y ago

I sort of agree with you, at least in the past. I used to run Linux as dual boot on my MacBooks and any Windows laptops. However, life became simpler for me (a good thing!) when I just started running OS X and switched from leased servers to EC2s. I mostly code in Clojure, Java, and Ruby so it really doesn't matter much which OS is on my laptop.

hello_moto 15y ago
There are 2 problems with Java and OSX for me (none of them are huge issues probably) 1) OSX version vs public version 2) Java SE API source code (you have to do some tinkering before you can browse the source code of JDK classes using your favourite short-cut keys provided by your favourite IDE).