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Yes, as I said, I don’t have a lot of experience. However, the little experience I have indicates that Windows is fundamentally worse. For instance, the file ha

Yes, as I said, I don’t have a lot of experience. However, the little experience I have indicates that Windows is fundamentally worse. For instance, the file handle issue is clearly annoying when developing. You may be used to it, but I don’t see an argument on how Windows’ handling of files is better or even equal. Or take Poweshell. The *nix approach of composeable shell primitives is better for developers. Software development is the composition of primitives after all. And you can tell me to RTFM all you like, but the manual is leaves something to be desired. Google “run on system start linux api” and the first result is about systemd. Create a config file, put it in the right place, and done. Replace linux with windows and I don’t see an answer on the first page of results. If you learn on Windows first, or if you’re a masochist, then I’m sure it’s possible to tolerate or even enjoy Windows development. But I have never seen a convincing argument that it’s better or even on par with Linux development.

oblio 4y ago
> However, the little experience I have indicates that Windows is fundamentally worse. Fundamentally worse is extremely hard to prove and subjective. It's different, that's for sure. > For instance, the file handle issue is clearly annoying when developing. You may be used to it, but I don’t see an argument on how Windows’ handling of files is better or even equal. That's one of the things that's arguably worse in the modern era, I'm quite sure it comes from CP/M (1974) so it's a super ancient decision, one that would break a lot of things if they change it. It's one of "go left or right, but you can't go back, and you'll only find out in 20 years if you've made the right choice". > Or take Poweshell. The *nix approach of composable shell primitives is better for developers. Software development is the composition of primitives after all. That's ironic, since Powershell is super composable. If anything, it's even more composable since it sends structured data, not just raw streams of bytes. There's a reason a ton of alternative shells want to evolve POSIX shells to add structured data, they're all inspired by Powershell. See for example https://www.nushell.sh/ https://www.nushell.sh/ You don't even have to believe me, try to find blog posts from many devs of next generation POSIX shells and several of them mention Powershell explicitly as inspiration. > Google “run on system start linux api” and the first result is about systemd. Create a config file, put it in the right place, and done. Unless you want to use Gentoo or Devuan or FreeBSD or... And amusingly, systemd is inspired by MacOS and Windows service management (parts of them) plus it actually tries to create the unified userland that's inspired by... Windows :-) > And you can tell me to RTFM all you like, but the manual is leaves something to be desired. Windows docs are super disparate, but Linux ones are the same. Strictly man-ing stuff won't get you super far. You'll need to do the same forum and StackOverflow and whatever digging for years and years to get anywhere. You've already done it, you've just forgotten doing it. > If you learn on Windows first, or if you’re a masochist, then I’m sure it’s possible to tolerate or even enjoy Windows development. But I have never seen a convincing argument that it’s better or even on par with Linux development. If we're professionals, we use what's available and we learn stuff from it. I wouldn't say Windows is better, but it's definitely a lot better than strictly POSIX users complain about it, and it can be made super usable and more POSIX oriented. I've done it with Cygwin circa 2008 and I've been happily using the same setup since then. For example in terms of desktop/laptop support, on average, Windows still fares better than Linux.
- atwood22 4y ago
  Thank you for this well-thought out response. I agree that Windows certainly fairs better on the desktop than Linux. I'm sure there is more to the picture than my limited experience, but I can't say I'll pick Windows in the future :)
- majkinetor 4y ago
  Very good. Especially section about proffesionals. I use both Windows and Linux and both are awesome. Powershell is legendary. I cant stand OS X tho...

oblio 4y ago

> However, the little experience I have indicates that Windows is fundamentally worse. Fundamentally worse is extremely hard to prove and subjective. It's different, that's for sure. > For instance, the file handle issue is clearly annoying when developing. You may be used to it, but I don’t see an argument on how Windows’ handling of files is better or even equal. That's one of the things that's arguably worse in the modern era, I'm quite sure it comes from CP/M (1974) so it's a super ancient decision, one that would break a lot of things if they change it. It's one of "go left or right, but you can't go back, and you'll only find out in 20 years if you've made the right choice". > Or take Poweshell. The *nix approach of composable shell primitives is better for developers. Software development is the composition of primitives after all. That's ironic, since Powershell is super composable. If anything, it's even more composable since it sends structured data, not just raw streams of bytes. There's a reason a ton of alternative shells want to evolve POSIX shells to add structured data, they're all inspired by Powershell. See for example https://www.nushell.sh/ https://www.nushell.sh/ You don't even have to believe me, try to find blog posts from many devs of next generation POSIX shells and several of them mention Powershell explicitly as inspiration. > Google “run on system start linux api” and the first result is about systemd. Create a config file, put it in the right place, and done. Unless you want to use Gentoo or Devuan or FreeBSD or... And amusingly, systemd is inspired by MacOS and Windows service management (parts of them) plus it actually tries to create the unified userland that's inspired by... Windows :-) > And you can tell me to RTFM all you like, but the manual is leaves something to be desired. Windows docs are super disparate, but Linux ones are the same. Strictly man-ing stuff won't get you super far. You'll need to do the same forum and StackOverflow and whatever digging for years and years to get anywhere. You've already done it, you've just forgotten doing it. > If you learn on Windows first, or if you’re a masochist, then I’m sure it’s possible to tolerate or even enjoy Windows development. But I have never seen a convincing argument that it’s better or even on par with Linux development. If we're professionals, we use what's available and we learn stuff from it. I wouldn't say Windows is better, but it's definitely a lot better than strictly POSIX users complain about it, and it can be made super usable and more POSIX oriented. I've done it with Cygwin circa 2008 and I've been happily using the same setup since then. For example in terms of desktop/laptop support, on average, Windows still fares better than Linux.

atwood22 4y ago
Thank you for this well-thought out response. I agree that Windows certainly fairs better on the desktop than Linux. I'm sure there is more to the picture than my limited experience, but I can't say I'll pick Windows in the future :)
majkinetor 4y ago
Very good. Especially section about proffesionals. I use both Windows and Linux and both are awesome. Powershell is legendary. I cant stand OS X tho...