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windows is definitely easier for newbie developers, but once you start to want more tools, the unix env is still the best place to be. It's like trying to use

windows is definitely easier for newbie developers, but once you start to want more tools, the unix env is still the best place to be. It's like trying to use vim when you've eclipse all your life. Vim plugins have all these "requirements" that make it look painful in comparison to eclipse addons.

tikhonj 15y ago
I'm entirely a Linux person and would never want to use anything else. However, I think Windows really isn't that bad as a development platform--probably not the most fashionable idea in the HN crowd. I know developers--experienced ones, at that--who are very efficient on Windows. There are now tools like Powershell that give Windows the functionality you'd need. While Windows is still proprietary and annoying, I don't think that just having a unix env is enough to be so much better than Windows. Of course, Linux is the best option for me because I'm used to it and can leverage it completely--and I'm sure it's the case for you too--but I've seen too many people efficiently using Windows to just ignore it out of hand. (Well, I can safely ignore it because it's proprietary, but that's completely unrelated to the topic at hand.)
bunderbunder 15y ago
Though, speaking as someone who started on Unix, moved to Windows, and is now starting to migrate back to Unix again - The plethora of tools can be as aggravating as it is liberating. Figuring out which of 50 different options will give the best development setup for $LANGUAGE strikes me as another chore I have to do before I can really sit down and start programming (i.e., the thing I actually want to be doing) more than anything else. I'm sure some of that is simply that I'm out of the game and needing to catch up a bit. But it seems like there's something real going on there too. For example, I've noticed that at meetups for Windows developers folks spend the majority of their idle time talking about code and software design, whereas at meetups for Unix developers folks seem to spend a much bigger chunk of time talking about various gadgets and their pros and cons and how to tame them and whatnot.

tikhonj 15y ago

I'm entirely a Linux person and would never want to use anything else. However, I think Windows really isn't that bad as a development platform--probably not the most fashionable idea in the HN crowd. I know developers--experienced ones, at that--who are very efficient on Windows. There are now tools like Powershell that give Windows the functionality you'd need. While Windows is still proprietary and annoying, I don't think that just having a unix env is enough to be so much better than Windows. Of course, Linux is the best option for me because I'm used to it and can leverage it completely--and I'm sure it's the case for you too--but I've seen too many people efficiently using Windows to just ignore it out of hand. (Well, I can safely ignore it because it's proprietary, but that's completely unrelated to the topic at hand.)

bunderbunder 15y ago

Though, speaking as someone who started on Unix, moved to Windows, and is now starting to migrate back to Unix again - The plethora of tools can be as aggravating as it is liberating. Figuring out which of 50 different options will give the best development setup for $LANGUAGE strikes me as another chore I have to do before I can really sit down and start programming (i.e., the thing I actually want to be doing) more than anything else. I'm sure some of that is simply that I'm out of the game and needing to catch up a bit. But it seems like there's something real going on there too. For example, I've noticed that at meetups for Windows developers folks spend the majority of their idle time talking about code and software design, whereas at meetups for Unix developers folks seem to spend a much bigger chunk of time talking about various gadgets and their pros and cons and how to tame them and whatnot.