11 ms·

Poll HN: What operating system do you primarily develop on?

78 points by dennis-tra 5y ago

LandR 5y ago
At work, Windows. For personal stuff, Linux.
teekert 5y ago
At work Windows (no other option), but fully in WSL2 (and a Linux batch compute cluster) so... Linux? For personal stuff, Linux right on the silicon.
- olalonde 5y ago
  Wait, you work fully in Linux VM but are forced to use Windows? That's a strange requirement.
  - detaro 5y ago
    That's quite normal, many places have blanket policies about what workstations run.
  - teekert 5y ago
    Windows is what we get. I tried running Linux, I can't get our vpn software to work. I proposed reverse SSH tunnels, they call it an "unmanaged endpoint", deemed unacceptable.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - chupasaurus 5y ago
      Which VPN software it is? Last time I had trouble with Checkpoint SNX and even that was figured out [1] (forks because the parent doesn't work). [1] https://github.com/schlatterbeck/snxvpn/network/members https://github.com/schlatterbeck/snxvpn/network/members
      - teekert 5y ago
        Cisco anyconnect, I know it can work on Linux, and I talked to some collegues using it on Linux on a "don't ask, don't tell" basis, but they had to hack some cert from the Windows version and I'm sure that IT would frown upon this. I tried installing a second disc in my laptop for Linux to try just this anyway, but I broke the laptop. Yeah this HP laptop has a 2.5" bay and an m.2 connector and it looks like you can use both at the same time, and you can! But if you read in the manual it says you can't because it puts strain on the connector and indeed, the "laptop died" after some days (pretty bad design I'd say). I didn't try anymore after that.
        chupasaurus 5y ago
        You can grab that cert in a number of ways. IT can do whatever since they have to provide all the data needed to connect anyway. > you can't because it puts strain on the connector Well that looks like a feature designed to sell more laptops.
  - chupasaurus 5y ago
    It's normal for desktops which are owned by the employer.
jamesfinlayson 5y ago
I wish it was Linux but work doesn't have a Linux SOE... so Mac it is Monday to Friday.
dragonsky 5y ago
Stuck with windows due to work restrictions. Could happily use either Mac or Linux with windows VM for the unfortunate bits.
Majestic121 5y ago
Interesting to see such a representation of Windows. My experience is that the only places where devs are using Windows is when it's mandatory, but when offered a choice, you end up with a 50/50 split Linux/MacOS +/- 25% depending on the company culture. And even when Windows is mandatory, most devs try to find escape hatches like WSL2 or a VM
- cxcorp 5y ago
  I'm not sure it's fair to call WSL2 an escape hatch. I use Windows for work because I like the more polished experience of the desktop, but I can just open up a Windows terminal instance and I've got a linux shell (via WSL2). And best of all, I can access the files directly with `explorer.exe .` if I need to.
  - executesorder66 5y ago
    WSL2 is literally a whole OS shipped alongside windows. (with nice integration done by the windows devs) Regardless of the implementation, the fact that you have to use it in the first place instead of native windows tools speaks volumes about how useless windows is for development. I can not fathom how anyone can consider it anything other than an "escape hatch".
    - beej71 5y ago
      For the type of work I do, Linux or Mac or WSL works. My preference also falls in that order, but WSL really does make Windows pretty painless for me. Now if they just ditch it all for Linux+WINE, that'd be great. ;-)
    - trhoad 5y ago
      Strictly speaking, it's not a "whole OS shipped alongside windows". It's an interop layer to allow you to interact with GNU based operating systems from Windows. Linux (or Debian etc.) is the OS.
  - Symbiote 5y ago
    I use KDE for the more-polished experience on the desktop: https://imgur.com/a/7FOZkdk https://imgur.com/a/7FOZkdk I have the Zsh terminal directly in the file explorer (slightly hidden in the screenshot), and also the KDE text editor (Kate). With the tab completion in Zsh, I often find it faster to navigate with "cd w-a/s/m/r/c/e/as<TAB><ENTER>" to go to "/home/symbiote/Workspace/work-app/src/main/resources/com/example/assets" than by clicking. I also use KDE for the wide range of configuration options. From scratch, it takes me about 5 minutes to go through all the settings to put everything as I like it -- of course, this is only necessary on a completely new system, e.g. at a new job. On the screenshot, I think the only visible change from default is the ^^ and vv buttons next to minimize/maximize, which are "Keep this window above/below" toggles. Invisible things are mostly keyboard shortcuts for moving windows around, mouse behaviour, auto-starting apps etc.
paavohtl 5y ago
Mac for work, Windows for personal projects.
01acheru 5y ago
I use a Mac but work on Linux: I'm always ssh'd into a Linux box, all servers are Linux, all code is on Linux.
agilob 5y ago
ArchLinux with Plasma 5 for everything. Coding at work, automating at work, gaming, homelab and servers. I tried Windows 10, but WSL doesn't feel the same, too many walkarounds to get to my way of working. Tried MBP it was alright, but CPU is too hot with 2 external screens not even doing any work. Attaching 3rd screen doesn't always work, doesn't detect the screen, it seems to be a power-consumption issue, and then I run out of USB ports. Linux PC has best performance with 4 screens and gives be best tools.
loser777 5y ago
Does this refer to the OS furthest away from what is running the code or the closest? Windows running WSL to support a Linux environment for Python... Windows running a web browser accessing a colab notebook hosted on a Linux machine... macOS ssh'd into a Linux box with a tmux "development environment"... All (my) roads lead to Linux so I'll say Linux.
- rvz 5y ago
  It says 'develop on' not 'for', hence the mention of Desktop OSes as the client. Basically in your case, in simple terms: Windows.
  - creshal 5y ago
    Is it really developed on Windows if Windows is solely only used as thin client to access something else? I'd say for examples #2 and #3 the development OS is definitely Linux. #1 is the only where I'd lean towards "Windows", since WSL tends to involve a much more split workflow, where a lot of your interactions happen outside the VM.
    - lostmsu 5y ago
      Why is #2 not Windows? He is in Windows. That remote machine hosting a notebook may tomorrow be replaced with Windows, and he would barely notice if he didn't put a lot of shell in his Python.
- samwillis 5y ago
  Yes, unfortunately phrased question. I think they are asking what OS is your development environment on, not deployment target. But a little ambiguous and so will probably be slightly unbalanced in it’s results.
rcarmo 5y ago
I develop on macOS and Windows (with WSL) to deploy on Linux, so this poll is... interesting, but only captures a third of that equation, if anything.
nick88msn 5y ago
Linux for development. MacOs for personal use. Windows only for gaming though.
Zardoz84 5y ago
I feel pity for anyone that are forced to develop on Windows.
- curiousgal 5y ago
  Exactly. I started using it on my personal machine so that I can get used to it and make my work experience less shitty.
- ycuser2 5y ago
  I develop on Windows and Linux, and I'm ok with Windows. What are the main disadvantages to develop on Windows?
  - reedf1 5y ago
    From someone who has done heavy development on both - I would say it's quite difficult to get used to the filesystem, non-POSIX (which is why mac users and linux users tend to find affinity), windows API being a bit arcane (Things like user-groups, event viewer, and process explorer being mostly dated UI apps with unique and strange windows API calls), services vs daemons, session-zero. I would say it's great at a user level, but under the covers you have to be a true windows grognard to know what is going on.
    - netizen-936824 5y ago
      This is why I don't use windows. Compared to Linux, everything feels strange and obfuscated
- mojzu 5y ago
  I've switched to Windows from Ubuntu on my desktop for development. I do miss some things but WSL2 is surprisingly good, the bluetooth stack doesn't randomly fail (as often) and having access to Windows and Linux tools at the same time without having to dual boot is very useful
- andoli 5y ago
  Could you please elaborate why? I found macos/ios to be the most annoying platform to develop on by far, expecially if you are trying to make some kind of cross-platform software. For webdev grunt work, in 2022, I think there are no dramatic differences between the 3 OS...
olavgg 5y ago
My workstation is Linux, which I mostly use. Though I have a MacBook laptop that I also use. So I voted for Linux, though MacOS is a close second. I also use Windows for development, but that is only when I do Windows specific stuff.
Grollicus 5y ago
Which OS do you mean? The OS where my text editor runs? The OS where the build system runs? The OS where the software I'm developing runs for testing? The OS I log into first thing in the morning? I think this poll is so unspecified the responses aren't going to be that meaningful.
- iso1631 5y ago
  > The OS where my text editor runs? Ubuntu Linux > The OS where the build system runs in? Ubuntu Linux > The OS where the software I'm developing runs for testing? Ubuntu Linux > The OS I log into first thing in the morning? Ubuntu Linux
- barrystaes 5y ago
  The OS you primarily develop on. Where does your IDE and devex tooling run.
- nix23 5y ago
  Emacs-OS with underlying hardware-framework/runtime ;)
ucosty 5y ago
Mac at work, Linux at home
barrystaes 5y ago
Whatever the tooling works best on. So Ubuntu for me, mostly as specialised/dispensable VMs.
notRobot 5y ago
I primarily do backend (PHP) dev. I write code on a Windows machine. I test it on a server running GNU/Linux, and deployment is also usually on a server running GNU/Linux.
baud147258 5y ago
Well, our products work only on Windows/Windows server, so we don't really have a choice there...
anthropodie 5y ago
Linux is used by developers so Linux will win this poll MacOS would win in a forum which has professionals who work primarily in movie/music/animation sector Windows if this was asked on internal platforms of enterprises
- iso1631 5y ago
  I've noticed more and more editors (TV news rather than movies) moving back to windows over the years, the stranglehold that FCP7 and the macbooks from 10 years ago (having supplanted avid/windows) had on shoot-edits isn't anywhere near as concrete as it used to be. For producers and reporters, the OS has changed from Windows to Chrome
trhoad 5y ago
Unfortunately, Windows at work as of late. But I've been surprised at how not-that-bad it's been. With Webstorm + Windows Terminal + Chrome, I have an almost identical frontend workflow to my previous job on MacOS, and barely have to touch anything Windows-specific.
olalonde 5y ago
Reminder that this poll likely suffers from self-selection bias.
- amelius 5y ago
  Also like to see how this changes as daylight time moves over the map.
toastal 5y ago
It's not been the easiest, but with little exceptions, I'm Nix and NixOS all the way down now. The end result has been very good once it's rolling though.
mjrbrennan 5y ago
I use Arch Linux with dwm as my daily driver as a software engineer. Sure there is some initial pain setting it up but it’s been rock solid and super fast, never have any problems with it and I love how customised it is to my needs. I only use Windows to play games, while they may work okay with Linux this is certainly not the case with dwm.
- creshal 5y ago
  Games on Linux are still hit or miss in my experience. With very simple setups (keyboard, mouse, one GPU) it can work okay-ish, but something "exotic" like gamepads, or multi-GPU setups still cause way too many problems. Windows is a very fine game console, in comparison.
- koehr 5y ago
  Funny, even ironic, that the thread now starts with someone saying "I use Arch". Good meme food.
  - metters 5y ago
    Thank you. I seriously didn’t know the meme and had a good read during my lunch break
perryizgr8 5y ago
I use a Mac at work, but I ssh into a Linux server and develop everything there. For personal projects, I use my Win 11 machine.
tomhoule 5y ago
NixOS for everything. It's the Linux distro I've had the best experience with in ~15 years of daily usage.
dutchbrit 5y ago
MacOS for work and personal, use a lot of docker/ddev, considering to switch to Linux however for work.
reedf1 5y ago
I wonder if this roughly encodes front end and back end devs? As someone is regularly doing CUDA work, most things tend to be on Windows or Linux - usually we are cross compiling to both.
tazeg95 5y ago
Memory usage on my Arch Linux is 444Mb on 32Gb, with i3 as window manager. This is on of the reason. Other reason is the command line !!!
pretendgeneer 5y ago
I use linux at home, and work I'm required to use a windows laptop but that is just a wrapper to the ssh session on the linux servers I develop on.
popotamonga 5y ago
Windows by choice. I grew up with it and find it perfect. pycharm for python, intellij idea for Java, android studio for android, vs for .netcore, vscode for frontend. datagrip for db stuff
- Semaphor 5y ago
  Very similar here, but I use WebStorm for frontend and Rider for .net 4.8 and 6.
rplnt 5y ago
Unfortunately, MacOS. Note: I would use unfortunately for all three. They are all bad in their own ways.
Xisiqomelir 5y ago
Only 3 options?
- amelius 5y ago
  "Other" is missing. I'd also like to see what platform people are developing for. (Of course the options should include web and mobile platforms).
- toastal 5y ago
  Would have like to have seen BSD + Android + Chromium OS + and the last catch-all of "other".
pelagicAustral 5y ago
I do Ruby/Rails at home on an iMac, work Java and Rails at the office on Ubuntu, and got a Windows laptop for C# and gaming. I work with them interchangeably, many days using all three seemingly.
voidfunc 5y ago
I was a Linux primary guy for a decade and change but my current employer forced everyone to switch to Windows or macOS in 2021. Ive never felt comfortable in macOS and the hardware is always meh (m1 not withstanding, that wasnt an option at the time). I have been working with Win 11 + WSL2 + x410 and it is really solid. I use x410 because WSLg is still a WIP.
lordnacho 5y ago
MacOS, but mainly because the hardware is nice: big pad, nice screen, M1 eats almost no battery. You get to a time where you're a bit stack agnostic. A lot of things that would annoy ordinary users are not so bad once you get to where you can switch between OSes easily. Between the three there's not terribly much that as a dev you can't just switch over. All your code is on a repo server, and there are IDEs for most languages on all of the OSes. According to rumor Windows scripting has caught us as well, so how different is it really? There's a few under-the-hood things that might annoy you, eg kqueue vs IOCP vs epoll, but even that can be abstracted so that your dev machine can test things in similar way to your eventual deploy machine. If all else fails (eg I ran into an allocator issue yesterday) you can just VM anyway.
sakisv 5y ago
As an SRE I find that MacOS for me strikes a good balance between being unix-y enough but also reliable to the degree that it doesn't require me to spend time debugging why the bluetooth fails or why the VPN stopped working after I ran apt-get update. I spent the last 6 years on various linux laptops (even a system76 one), but unfortunately I couldn't get the same polished experience as with a macbook.
tsm 5y ago
I used OS X from 2013-2020 when my at-the-time companies gave me a top-end MBP and the very strong encouragement to use OS X. It was fine. But my most recent gig had a lot of Linux users anyway, so I returned to Linux, got a crappy System76 ultrabook, have Debian and StumpWM running on it, and couldn't be happier. I plan to use this laptop and not do much more than a `sudo apt-get dist-upgrade` until the 2030s. Maybe I'll replace the battery too.
julienpalard 5y ago
As I use Debian in production ($DAYJOB, https://afpy.org https://afpy.org, https://hackinscience.org https://hackinscience.org, https://mdk.fr https://mdk.fr, ...) it make sense to also use Debian to develop (which I use since Woody), so I have Debian on my laptop and even on my phone (mobian exactly) :D
Darkstack 5y ago
Windows 10 with Visual studio, Vim and Visual Studio Code (that can now connect to WSL). I have WSL2, so I can use a mostly POSIX compliant OS at the same time (and use app like grep/sed/uniq/wc etc...). I want to run on the same environment as my users.
wanderingmind 5y ago
As an aside, I use Ubuntu, but their commitment to Wayland is creating multiple issues. Any Debian based distros that are going to stick with X11 that people can recommend?
- tryauuum 5y ago
  I use xubuntu 20.04. wonder if they will start pushing wayland in 22.04 as well
  - wanderingmind 5y ago
    Wayland is default in Ubuntu/Xubuntu starting 21.04
Havoc 5y ago
Much like many others here Windows interface wise, but with remote into a nix environment for the actual code part
marcos100 5y ago
Windows + WSL I've used osx a long time ago and was never satisfied with homebrew. Switched to linux, but I needed excel, so switched to win + wsl. Now I don't really need excel, but the Win+WSL combo just works.
- netizen-936824 5y ago
  I sometimes need to use windows software but I would never switch back. Windows goes in a VM, work gets done, and I stay on linux
  - marcos100 5y ago
    I understand, but I have this unfounded feeling that windows+wsl is less mentally exhausting than linux+win vm.
    - netizen-936824 5y ago
      If you use windows that often, it may be worthwhile to set up GPU passthrough so it feels more seamless
JodieBenitez 5y ago
(laptops) I used OSX from 2009 to 2017, Debian from 2018 to 2021 (not my choice) and now back on OSX. Nothing against Debian specifically (and it's still my default production target in a lot of cases), but the lack of good laptop hardware and good software support for the hardware was a real pita. In contrast, the machine I have now is a real pleasure to work on: excellent keyboard and pad, totally quiet (fan-less), excellent energy management, great screen, extremely lightweight.
Wavelets 5y ago
I bounce between Linux and Windows for work. MacOS for personal.
nix23 5y ago
FreeBSD and MVS TK4-
- hestefisk 5y ago
  MVS?
  - nix23 5y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MVS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MVS http://wotho.ethz.ch/tk4-/ http://wotho.ethz.ch/tk4-/
pcdoodle 5y ago
Was using windows since visual studio 6.0 Now I'm on MacOS. I can't stand where windows is going.
RVuRnvbM2e 5y ago
I find it astounding that so many developers use MacOS. To do anything useful you need to install homebrew, and the hoops you have to jump through to get homebrew running are annoying. Not to mention the fact that it is a wholly unsupported third-party package management system that doesn't integrate properly into the rest of the OS. Don't get me wrong, homebrew is awesome tech. It just seems that you have to use it to jump a bunch of barriers that Apple purposefully puts in the way before you get an actually useful and up-to-date development environment. Why do people put up with this?
- samrolken 5y ago
  What are the hoops? It installs for me in a few minutes with a single command.
  - evercast 5y ago
    +1 on this. Homebrew is so smooth to use that I never felt like I am missing something compared to Linux package managers.
- tgv 5y ago
  It's a great machine for other things, too. And there are so many hoops you don't have to jump through. I remember wasting a whole day on trying to get some Dell's WiFi working under Linux. And then there are tools like Pixelmator, which simply have no equivalent on Linux. Not to mention that the company uses Office 365 for everything, and that just doesn't run well in a browser. OTOH, setting up brew is pretty simple, and installing Docker is even simpler.
  - cookieswumchorr 5y ago
    well, have you tried to get the Dell's wifi working under MacOS? its one thing to use a preinstalled OS, and another to install one yourself. Of course there is more hassle if you choose the second option. But you don't have too, there are laptops with Linux on the market.
- rawbert 5y ago
qubyte 5y ago
All three at some point, but MacOS has been my dev environment of choice since 2004. I'd probably be happier in Linux or even a BSD except I can't help tinkering with them.
albertopv 5y ago
In my experience, I'm Italian, FE devs use macs, almost everybody else use Windows, but today almost everything is on Docker so many BE devs use WSL or a linux VM (WSL2 has a lot of issues with VPNs), but not all, sometimes it's just simpler to commit and let CI do its magic. Windows 10 is now quite stable, IT management (with AD, GP...) usually works etc. And Office 365 is everywhere, Mac or web version are not on pair vs Windows version. I would prefer a Linux PC, development would be simpler.
NextHendrix 5y ago
Windows is mandatory at work, but all of my personal stuff I do on Linux. Since I do more at work than I do in my spare time I have to answer Windows, but if the question was which do I _prefer_ then the answer would be different.
rickette 5y ago
On macOs for the past 13 years, Windows and a bit of Linux before that.
hestefisk 5y ago
FreBSD. You missed it, alongside other BSDs.
Saphyel 5y ago
I'm guessing if your product is for mac and windows you'll be force to develop on them, unfortunately.. Otherwise Linux is the only nice way.
aklemm 5y ago
I gave Windows+WSL2 a fair shake (more than a year), but it’s just too bumbling. Back to MacOS and finding it a pure joy, rivaling the joy I had with Gnome on Linux 10+ years ago. Might have to give Linux a try again based on these poll results so far.
Octabrain 5y ago
I personally use MacOS for work and MacOS and Linux at home (Macbook pro and desktop PC with RHEL 8.5). Despite all the hate-on-Windows-cliche I have to admit they have been doing good things in the last years, however it’s just not for me. These are, from the top of my head, the things I dislike the most: - Not full control over state of services running (e.g no kill -9, you can try to kill a service and it will simply tell you that you can’t despite being an admin). - System directory tree. Not a big deal and a question of habits more than nothing. - No culture of configuration in text files. You have to rely on Powershell. (Nothing against it, I simply don’t like it) - The standard of using slash (/) instead of hyphens (-, —-) for arguments in the native command line tools. - The limited set of native command line utilities. - CMD feels limited and clunky and Powershell feels overkilling. - It’s privative software. (To be fair, I use MacOS which is mostly privative too but I find a better balance) - The inconsistencies on the UI in terms of aesthetics and also the mess they have with the old/new control panel options. Pretty sure I am forgetting some more. Don’t get me wrong, I can see its good things and benefits but it’s just not my thing.
kdtsh 5y ago
I transitioned to Linux at work after Windows+WSL2 for a number of years. I went with Fedora - most of my work is with RHEL-compatible servers, so I’m somewhat familiar with the package manager. I generally develop in Emacs as it integrates well into the OS and I’m not familiar with VSCode, but I’m not averse to trying it. A great experience on the whole. Only thing I can’t do is Remote Desktop, which is actually quite a pain and something I need to find a solution for eventually - but for now I get by. I have also found some weird GNOME bug where mouse gestures stop working when e.g. changing workspaces such that I have to reboot using only keyboard shortcuts (can’t even click reboot), this is also something I need to get to the bottom of.
vkoskiv 5y ago
macOS from 2008-2021, Linux going forward. I just got frustrated with the sorry state of modern macOS, and managed to finally make the switch without too much pain.
Froedlich 5y ago
I develop on Linux (KDE) in Freepascal and Lazarus, working around OS-specific code since about half of my customers are running Windows. I also check for compatibility with Wine and ReactOS.
Gud 5y ago
FreeBSD.
bradlys 5y ago
MacOS because it’s what comes on all the MacBook pros I get at every one of my jobs in SV. I use windows on my desktop machine for personal use. I code on it sometimes but not often. It’s mostly for gaming and whatever else I want to do.
jasonpeacock 5y ago
OSX is my "it just works" user-interface OS/development "appliance", which I use a dumb-terminal to SSH to a cloud linux host (or local shell, which is close-enough to linux for my development purposes). So really, I develop in linux using tmux+neovim but my user environment is OSX because I want an OS that I don't have to tweak, tune, and fight.
scruple 5y ago
Linux has been my primary development OS since ~2008 but I had always run Windows as my main desktop OS for gaming. Over Christmas of 2021, I installed Ubuntu on my main desktop. During the fall of 2021, I was migrated to Windows 11 as part of the developer experience and did not care for it. Add to that the fact that Microsoft wouldn't support my "ancient" i7-4790k in the live release of Windows 11. They made the decision to switch to Linux for me. I went with Ubuntu so that I could easily test-drive Linux for daily driving and gaming. I've had a couple of strange snags but every game (that I play) has worked fine otherwise and many of them have native versions regardless. If/when I can spare a weekend, I'll move over to Arch.
jftuga 5y ago
results 15 hours after post: L:236, M:168, W:108 L:46.1%, M: 32.8%, W:21.1%
stunt 5y ago
macOS at work, Linux at home

78 points by dennis-tra 5y ago

At work, Windows. For personal stuff, Linux.

At work Windows (no other option), but fully in WSL2 (and a Linux batch compute cluster) so... Linux? For personal stuff, Linux right on the silicon.

olalonde 5y ago
Wait, you work fully in Linux VM but are forced to use Windows? That's a strange requirement.
- detaro 5y ago
  That's quite normal, many places have blanket policies about what workstations run.
- teekert 5y ago
  Windows is what we get. I tried running Linux, I can't get our vpn software to work. I proposed reverse SSH tunnels, they call it an "unmanaged endpoint", deemed unacceptable.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - chupasaurus 5y ago
    Which VPN software it is? Last time I had trouble with Checkpoint SNX and even that was figured out [1] (forks because the parent doesn't work). [1] https://github.com/schlatterbeck/snxvpn/network/members https://github.com/schlatterbeck/snxvpn/network/members
    - teekert 5y ago
      Cisco anyconnect, I know it can work on Linux, and I talked to some collegues using it on Linux on a "don't ask, don't tell" basis, but they had to hack some cert from the Windows version and I'm sure that IT would frown upon this. I tried installing a second disc in my laptop for Linux to try just this anyway, but I broke the laptop. Yeah this HP laptop has a 2.5" bay and an m.2 connector and it looks like you can use both at the same time, and you can! But if you read in the manual it says you can't because it puts strain on the connector and indeed, the "laptop died" after some days (pretty bad design I'd say). I didn't try anymore after that.
      - chupasaurus 5y ago
        You can grab that cert in a number of ways. IT can do whatever since they have to provide all the data needed to connect anyway. > you can't because it puts strain on the connector Well that looks like a feature designed to sell more laptops.
- chupasaurus 5y ago
  It's normal for desktops which are owned by the employer.

jamesfinlayson 5y ago

I wish it was Linux but work doesn't have a Linux SOE... so Mac it is Monday to Friday.

dragonsky 5y ago

Stuck with windows due to work restrictions. Could happily use either Mac or Linux with windows VM for the unfortunate bits.

Majestic121 5y ago

Interesting to see such a representation of Windows. My experience is that the only places where devs are using Windows is when it's mandatory, but when offered a choice, you end up with a 50/50 split Linux/MacOS +/- 25% depending on the company culture. And even when Windows is mandatory, most devs try to find escape hatches like WSL2 or a VM

cxcorp 5y ago
I'm not sure it's fair to call WSL2 an escape hatch. I use Windows for work because I like the more polished experience of the desktop, but I can just open up a Windows terminal instance and I've got a linux shell (via WSL2). And best of all, I can access the files directly with `explorer.exe .` if I need to.
- executesorder66 5y ago
  WSL2 is literally a whole OS shipped alongside windows. (with nice integration done by the windows devs) Regardless of the implementation, the fact that you have to use it in the first place instead of native windows tools speaks volumes about how useless windows is for development. I can not fathom how anyone can consider it anything other than an "escape hatch".
  - beej71 5y ago
    For the type of work I do, Linux or Mac or WSL works. My preference also falls in that order, but WSL really does make Windows pretty painless for me. Now if they just ditch it all for Linux+WINE, that'd be great. ;-)
  - trhoad 5y ago
    Strictly speaking, it's not a "whole OS shipped alongside windows". It's an interop layer to allow you to interact with GNU based operating systems from Windows. Linux (or Debian etc.) is the OS.
- Symbiote 5y ago
  I use KDE for the more-polished experience on the desktop: https://imgur.com/a/7FOZkdk https://imgur.com/a/7FOZkdk I have the Zsh terminal directly in the file explorer (slightly hidden in the screenshot), and also the KDE text editor (Kate). With the tab completion in Zsh, I often find it faster to navigate with "cd w-a/s/m/r/c/e/as<TAB><ENTER>" to go to "/home/symbiote/Workspace/work-app/src/main/resources/com/example/assets" than by clicking. I also use KDE for the wide range of configuration options. From scratch, it takes me about 5 minutes to go through all the settings to put everything as I like it -- of course, this is only necessary on a completely new system, e.g. at a new job. On the screenshot, I think the only visible change from default is the ^^ and vv buttons next to minimize/maximize, which are "Keep this window above/below" toggles. Invisible things are mostly keyboard shortcuts for moving windows around, mouse behaviour, auto-starting apps etc.

paavohtl 5y ago

Mac for work, Windows for personal projects.

01acheru 5y ago

I use a Mac but work on Linux: I'm always ssh'd into a Linux box, all servers are Linux, all code is on Linux.

agilob 5y ago

ArchLinux with Plasma 5 for everything. Coding at work, automating at work, gaming, homelab and servers. I tried Windows 10, but WSL doesn't feel the same, too many walkarounds to get to my way of working. Tried MBP it was alright, but CPU is too hot with 2 external screens not even doing any work. Attaching 3rd screen doesn't always work, doesn't detect the screen, it seems to be a power-consumption issue, and then I run out of USB ports. Linux PC has best performance with 4 screens and gives be best tools.

loser777 5y ago

Does this refer to the OS furthest away from what is running the code or the closest? Windows running WSL to support a Linux environment for Python... Windows running a web browser accessing a colab notebook hosted on a Linux machine... macOS ssh'd into a Linux box with a tmux "development environment"... All (my) roads lead to Linux so I'll say Linux.

rvz 5y ago
It says 'develop on' not 'for', hence the mention of Desktop OSes as the client. Basically in your case, in simple terms: Windows.
- creshal 5y ago
  Is it really developed on Windows if Windows is solely only used as thin client to access something else? I'd say for examples #2 and #3 the development OS is definitely Linux. #1 is the only where I'd lean towards "Windows", since WSL tends to involve a much more split workflow, where a lot of your interactions happen outside the VM.
  - lostmsu 5y ago
    Why is #2 not Windows? He is in Windows. That remote machine hosting a notebook may tomorrow be replaced with Windows, and he would barely notice if he didn't put a lot of shell in his Python.
samwillis 5y ago
Yes, unfortunately phrased question. I think they are asking what OS is your development environment on, not deployment target. But a little ambiguous and so will probably be slightly unbalanced in it’s results.

rcarmo 5y ago

I develop on macOS and Windows (with WSL) to deploy on Linux, so this poll is... interesting, but only captures a third of that equation, if anything.

nick88msn 5y ago

Linux for development. MacOs for personal use. Windows only for gaming though.

Zardoz84 5y ago

I feel pity for anyone that are forced to develop on Windows.

curiousgal 5y ago
Exactly. I started using it on my personal machine so that I can get used to it and make my work experience less shitty.
ycuser2 5y ago
I develop on Windows and Linux, and I'm ok with Windows. What are the main disadvantages to develop on Windows?
- reedf1 5y ago
  From someone who has done heavy development on both - I would say it's quite difficult to get used to the filesystem, non-POSIX (which is why mac users and linux users tend to find affinity), windows API being a bit arcane (Things like user-groups, event viewer, and process explorer being mostly dated UI apps with unique and strange windows API calls), services vs daemons, session-zero. I would say it's great at a user level, but under the covers you have to be a true windows grognard to know what is going on.
  - netizen-936824 5y ago
    This is why I don't use windows. Compared to Linux, everything feels strange and obfuscated
mojzu 5y ago
I've switched to Windows from Ubuntu on my desktop for development. I do miss some things but WSL2 is surprisingly good, the bluetooth stack doesn't randomly fail (as often) and having access to Windows and Linux tools at the same time without having to dual boot is very useful
andoli 5y ago
Could you please elaborate why? I found macos/ios to be the most annoying platform to develop on by far, expecially if you are trying to make some kind of cross-platform software. For webdev grunt work, in 2022, I think there are no dramatic differences between the 3 OS...

olavgg 5y ago

My workstation is Linux, which I mostly use. Though I have a MacBook laptop that I also use. So I voted for Linux, though MacOS is a close second. I also use Windows for development, but that is only when I do Windows specific stuff.

Grollicus 5y ago

Which OS do you mean? The OS where my text editor runs? The OS where the build system runs? The OS where the software I'm developing runs for testing? The OS I log into first thing in the morning? I think this poll is so unspecified the responses aren't going to be that meaningful.

iso1631 5y ago
> The OS where my text editor runs? Ubuntu Linux > The OS where the build system runs in? Ubuntu Linux > The OS where the software I'm developing runs for testing? Ubuntu Linux > The OS I log into first thing in the morning? Ubuntu Linux
barrystaes 5y ago
The OS you primarily develop on. Where does your IDE and devex tooling run.
nix23 5y ago
Emacs-OS with underlying hardware-framework/runtime ;)

ucosty 5y ago

Mac at work, Linux at home

barrystaes 5y ago

Whatever the tooling works best on. So Ubuntu for me, mostly as specialised/dispensable VMs.

notRobot 5y ago

I primarily do backend (PHP) dev. I write code on a Windows machine. I test it on a server running GNU/Linux, and deployment is also usually on a server running GNU/Linux.

baud147258 5y ago

Well, our products work only on Windows/Windows server, so we don't really have a choice there...

anthropodie 5y ago

Linux is used by developers so Linux will win this poll MacOS would win in a forum which has professionals who work primarily in movie/music/animation sector Windows if this was asked on internal platforms of enterprises

iso1631 5y ago
I've noticed more and more editors (TV news rather than movies) moving back to windows over the years, the stranglehold that FCP7 and the macbooks from 10 years ago (having supplanted avid/windows) had on shoot-edits isn't anywhere near as concrete as it used to be. For producers and reporters, the OS has changed from Windows to Chrome

trhoad 5y ago

Unfortunately, Windows at work as of late. But I've been surprised at how not-that-bad it's been. With Webstorm + Windows Terminal + Chrome, I have an almost identical frontend workflow to my previous job on MacOS, and barely have to touch anything Windows-specific.

olalonde 5y ago

Reminder that this poll likely suffers from self-selection bias.

amelius 5y ago
Also like to see how this changes as daylight time moves over the map.

toastal 5y ago

It's not been the easiest, but with little exceptions, I'm Nix and NixOS all the way down now. The end result has been very good once it's rolling though.

mjrbrennan 5y ago

I use Arch Linux with dwm as my daily driver as a software engineer. Sure there is some initial pain setting it up but it’s been rock solid and super fast, never have any problems with it and I love how customised it is to my needs. I only use Windows to play games, while they may work okay with Linux this is certainly not the case with dwm.

creshal 5y ago
Games on Linux are still hit or miss in my experience. With very simple setups (keyboard, mouse, one GPU) it can work okay-ish, but something "exotic" like gamepads, or multi-GPU setups still cause way too many problems. Windows is a very fine game console, in comparison.
koehr 5y ago
Funny, even ironic, that the thread now starts with someone saying "I use Arch". Good meme food.
- metters 5y ago
  Thank you. I seriously didn’t know the meme and had a good read during my lunch break

perryizgr8 5y ago

I use a Mac at work, but I ssh into a Linux server and develop everything there. For personal projects, I use my Win 11 machine.

tomhoule 5y ago

NixOS for everything. It's the Linux distro I've had the best experience with in ~15 years of daily usage.

dutchbrit 5y ago

MacOS for work and personal, use a lot of docker/ddev, considering to switch to Linux however for work.

reedf1 5y ago

I wonder if this roughly encodes front end and back end devs? As someone is regularly doing CUDA work, most things tend to be on Windows or Linux - usually we are cross compiling to both.

tazeg95 5y ago

Memory usage on my Arch Linux is 444Mb on 32Gb, with i3 as window manager. This is on of the reason. Other reason is the command line !!!

pretendgeneer 5y ago

I use linux at home, and work I'm required to use a windows laptop but that is just a wrapper to the ssh session on the linux servers I develop on.

popotamonga 5y ago

Windows by choice. I grew up with it and find it perfect. pycharm for python, intellij idea for Java, android studio for android, vs for .netcore, vscode for frontend. datagrip for db stuff

Semaphor 5y ago
Very similar here, but I use WebStorm for frontend and Rider for .net 4.8 and 6.

rplnt 5y ago

Unfortunately, MacOS. Note: I would use unfortunately for all three. They are all bad in their own ways.

Xisiqomelir 5y ago

Only 3 options?

amelius 5y ago
"Other" is missing. I'd also like to see what platform people are developing for. (Of course the options should include web and mobile platforms).
toastal 5y ago
Would have like to have seen BSD + Android + Chromium OS + and the last catch-all of "other".

pelagicAustral 5y ago

I do Ruby/Rails at home on an iMac, work Java and Rails at the office on Ubuntu, and got a Windows laptop for C# and gaming. I work with them interchangeably, many days using all three seemingly.

voidfunc 5y ago

I was a Linux primary guy for a decade and change but my current employer forced everyone to switch to Windows or macOS in 2021. Ive never felt comfortable in macOS and the hardware is always meh (m1 not withstanding, that wasnt an option at the time). I have been working with Win 11 + WSL2 + x410 and it is really solid. I use x410 because WSLg is still a WIP.

lordnacho 5y ago

MacOS, but mainly because the hardware is nice: big pad, nice screen, M1 eats almost no battery. You get to a time where you're a bit stack agnostic. A lot of things that would annoy ordinary users are not so bad once you get to where you can switch between OSes easily. Between the three there's not terribly much that as a dev you can't just switch over. All your code is on a repo server, and there are IDEs for most languages on all of the OSes. According to rumor Windows scripting has caught us as well, so how different is it really? There's a few under-the-hood things that might annoy you, eg kqueue vs IOCP vs epoll, but even that can be abstracted so that your dev machine can test things in similar way to your eventual deploy machine. If all else fails (eg I ran into an allocator issue yesterday) you can just VM anyway.

sakisv 5y ago

As an SRE I find that MacOS for me strikes a good balance between being unix-y enough but also reliable to the degree that it doesn't require me to spend time debugging why the bluetooth fails or why the VPN stopped working after I ran apt-get update. I spent the last 6 years on various linux laptops (even a system76 one), but unfortunately I couldn't get the same polished experience as with a macbook.

tsm 5y ago

I used OS X from 2013-2020 when my at-the-time companies gave me a top-end MBP and the very strong encouragement to use OS X. It was fine. But my most recent gig had a lot of Linux users anyway, so I returned to Linux, got a crappy System76 ultrabook, have Debian and StumpWM running on it, and couldn't be happier. I plan to use this laptop and not do much more than a `sudo apt-get dist-upgrade` until the 2030s. Maybe I'll replace the battery too.

julienpalard 5y ago

As I use Debian in production ($DAYJOB, https://afpy.org https://afpy.org, https://hackinscience.org https://hackinscience.org, https://mdk.fr https://mdk.fr, ...) it make sense to also use Debian to develop (which I use since Woody), so I have Debian on my laptop and even on my phone (mobian exactly) :D

Darkstack 5y ago

Windows 10 with Visual studio, Vim and Visual Studio Code (that can now connect to WSL). I have WSL2, so I can use a mostly POSIX compliant OS at the same time (and use app like grep/sed/uniq/wc etc...). I want to run on the same environment as my users.

wanderingmind 5y ago

As an aside, I use Ubuntu, but their commitment to Wayland is creating multiple issues. Any Debian based distros that are going to stick with X11 that people can recommend?

tryauuum 5y ago
I use xubuntu 20.04. wonder if they will start pushing wayland in 22.04 as well
- wanderingmind 5y ago
  Wayland is default in Ubuntu/Xubuntu starting 21.04

Havoc 5y ago

Much like many others here Windows interface wise, but with remote into a nix environment for the actual code part

marcos100 5y ago

Windows + WSL I've used osx a long time ago and was never satisfied with homebrew. Switched to linux, but I needed excel, so switched to win + wsl. Now I don't really need excel, but the Win+WSL combo just works.

netizen-936824 5y ago
I sometimes need to use windows software but I would never switch back. Windows goes in a VM, work gets done, and I stay on linux
- marcos100 5y ago
  I understand, but I have this unfounded feeling that windows+wsl is less mentally exhausting than linux+win vm.
  - netizen-936824 5y ago
    If you use windows that often, it may be worthwhile to set up GPU passthrough so it feels more seamless

JodieBenitez 5y ago

(laptops) I used OSX from 2009 to 2017, Debian from 2018 to 2021 (not my choice) and now back on OSX. Nothing against Debian specifically (and it's still my default production target in a lot of cases), but the lack of good laptop hardware and good software support for the hardware was a real pita. In contrast, the machine I have now is a real pleasure to work on: excellent keyboard and pad, totally quiet (fan-less), excellent energy management, great screen, extremely lightweight.

Wavelets 5y ago

I bounce between Linux and Windows for work. MacOS for personal.

nix23 5y ago

FreeBSD and MVS TK4-

hestefisk 5y ago
MVS?
- nix23 5y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MVS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MVS http://wotho.ethz.ch/tk4-/ http://wotho.ethz.ch/tk4-/

pcdoodle 5y ago

Was using windows since visual studio 6.0 Now I'm on MacOS. I can't stand where windows is going.

RVuRnvbM2e 5y ago

I find it astounding that so many developers use MacOS. To do anything useful you need to install homebrew, and the hoops you have to jump through to get homebrew running are annoying. Not to mention the fact that it is a wholly unsupported third-party package management system that doesn't integrate properly into the rest of the OS. Don't get me wrong, homebrew is awesome tech. It just seems that you have to use it to jump a bunch of barriers that Apple purposefully puts in the way before you get an actually useful and up-to-date development environment. Why do people put up with this?

samrolken 5y ago
What are the hoops? It installs for me in a few minutes with a single command.
- evercast 5y ago
  +1 on this. Homebrew is so smooth to use that I never felt like I am missing something compared to Linux package managers.
tgv 5y ago
It's a great machine for other things, too. And there are so many hoops you don't have to jump through. I remember wasting a whole day on trying to get some Dell's WiFi working under Linux. And then there are tools like Pixelmator, which simply have no equivalent on Linux. Not to mention that the company uses Office 365 for everything, and that just doesn't run well in a browser. OTOH, setting up brew is pretty simple, and installing Docker is even simpler.
- cookieswumchorr 5y ago
  well, have you tried to get the Dell's wifi working under MacOS? its one thing to use a preinstalled OS, and another to install one yourself. Of course there is more hassle if you choose the second option. But you don't have too, there are laptops with Linux on the market.
rawbert 5y ago

qubyte 5y ago

All three at some point, but MacOS has been my dev environment of choice since 2004. I'd probably be happier in Linux or even a BSD except I can't help tinkering with them.

albertopv 5y ago

In my experience, I'm Italian, FE devs use macs, almost everybody else use Windows, but today almost everything is on Docker so many BE devs use WSL or a linux VM (WSL2 has a lot of issues with VPNs), but not all, sometimes it's just simpler to commit and let CI do its magic. Windows 10 is now quite stable, IT management (with AD, GP...) usually works etc. And Office 365 is everywhere, Mac or web version are not on pair vs Windows version. I would prefer a Linux PC, development would be simpler.

NextHendrix 5y ago

Windows is mandatory at work, but all of my personal stuff I do on Linux. Since I do more at work than I do in my spare time I have to answer Windows, but if the question was which do I _prefer_ then the answer would be different.

rickette 5y ago

On macOs for the past 13 years, Windows and a bit of Linux before that.

hestefisk 5y ago

FreBSD. You missed it, alongside other BSDs.

Saphyel 5y ago

I'm guessing if your product is for mac and windows you'll be force to develop on them, unfortunately.. Otherwise Linux is the only nice way.

aklemm 5y ago

I gave Windows+WSL2 a fair shake (more than a year), but it’s just too bumbling. Back to MacOS and finding it a pure joy, rivaling the joy I had with Gnome on Linux 10+ years ago. Might have to give Linux a try again based on these poll results so far.

Octabrain 5y ago

I personally use MacOS for work and MacOS and Linux at home (Macbook pro and desktop PC with RHEL 8.5). Despite all the hate-on-Windows-cliche I have to admit they have been doing good things in the last years, however it’s just not for me. These are, from the top of my head, the things I dislike the most: - Not full control over state of services running (e.g no kill -9, you can try to kill a service and it will simply tell you that you can’t despite being an admin). - System directory tree. Not a big deal and a question of habits more than nothing. - No culture of configuration in text files. You have to rely on Powershell. (Nothing against it, I simply don’t like it) - The standard of using slash (/) instead of hyphens (-, —-) for arguments in the native command line tools. - The limited set of native command line utilities. - CMD feels limited and clunky and Powershell feels overkilling. - It’s privative software. (To be fair, I use MacOS which is mostly privative too but I find a better balance) - The inconsistencies on the UI in terms of aesthetics and also the mess they have with the old/new control panel options. Pretty sure I am forgetting some more. Don’t get me wrong, I can see its good things and benefits but it’s just not my thing.

kdtsh 5y ago

I transitioned to Linux at work after Windows+WSL2 for a number of years. I went with Fedora - most of my work is with RHEL-compatible servers, so I’m somewhat familiar with the package manager. I generally develop in Emacs as it integrates well into the OS and I’m not familiar with VSCode, but I’m not averse to trying it. A great experience on the whole. Only thing I can’t do is Remote Desktop, which is actually quite a pain and something I need to find a solution for eventually - but for now I get by. I have also found some weird GNOME bug where mouse gestures stop working when e.g. changing workspaces such that I have to reboot using only keyboard shortcuts (can’t even click reboot), this is also something I need to get to the bottom of.

vkoskiv 5y ago

macOS from 2008-2021, Linux going forward. I just got frustrated with the sorry state of modern macOS, and managed to finally make the switch without too much pain.

Froedlich 5y ago

I develop on Linux (KDE) in Freepascal and Lazarus, working around OS-specific code since about half of my customers are running Windows. I also check for compatibility with Wine and ReactOS.

Gud 5y ago

FreeBSD.

bradlys 5y ago

MacOS because it’s what comes on all the MacBook pros I get at every one of my jobs in SV. I use windows on my desktop machine for personal use. I code on it sometimes but not often. It’s mostly for gaming and whatever else I want to do.

jasonpeacock 5y ago

OSX is my "it just works" user-interface OS/development "appliance", which I use a dumb-terminal to SSH to a cloud linux host (or local shell, which is close-enough to linux for my development purposes). So really, I develop in linux using tmux+neovim but my user environment is OSX because I want an OS that I don't have to tweak, tune, and fight.

scruple 5y ago

Linux has been my primary development OS since ~2008 but I had always run Windows as my main desktop OS for gaming. Over Christmas of 2021, I installed Ubuntu on my main desktop. During the fall of 2021, I was migrated to Windows 11 as part of the developer experience and did not care for it. Add to that the fact that Microsoft wouldn't support my "ancient" i7-4790k in the live release of Windows 11. They made the decision to switch to Linux for me. I went with Ubuntu so that I could easily test-drive Linux for daily driving and gaming. I've had a couple of strange snags but every game (that I play) has worked fine otherwise and many of them have native versions regardless. If/when I can spare a weekend, I'll move over to Arch.

jftuga 5y ago

results 15 hours after post: L:236, M:168, W:108 L:46.1%, M: 32.8%, W:21.1%

stunt 5y ago

macOS at work, Linux at home