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Ask HN: is Mac or Linux the choice for a modern web hacker?

6 points by BadassFractal 15y ago

Let's say you're a lean mean startup web app writer heavily relying on the latest OSS techologies and frameworks to get your job done. You don't care so much for the MS .NET-based stack, you like your various rails, djangos, scalas and nodes and need to get stuff done fast and efficiently. What would you choose? What are some good arguments in favor of using OSX (I generalized it to "Mac" in the title) over Linux and vice-versa? Thank you!

mattbillenstein 15y ago
Develop on the same platform that you deploy on - which will probably be some flavor of Linux... That being said, I usually develop in a Ubuntu VM running on OSX -- so you get the best of both worlds, a system that just works, and a development environment that's the same as what you'll end up deploying on.
- BadassFractal 15y ago
  Do you ever feel that the Ubuntu VM isn't fast enough and you wish you had a real installation of the OS to work with, is the VM more than enough? Also, what software do you use to manage that VM?
  - johnny22 15y ago
    I use linux for development, but i still keep my dev environment separate via http://vagrantup.com/ http://vagrantup.com/ . I've found it fast enough except when using the shared folder support. My laptop could use a faster disk though. So .. YMMV.
  - steventruong 15y ago
    You could always boot into the full OS but I've never had any issues with it being too slow or not fast enough when running VM. But then again, it all depends on your machine. That said (since I'm already responding to this, I'll answer the original question here too), the best answer is usually whatever you're most comfortable working with. However, the exception here for me is that I would personally prefer a Mac simply because I could install Linux and that a Mac is required for iDev.
  - signa11 15y ago
    > Also, what software do you use to manage that VM? could you please clarify what you mean by managing a vm ? are you looking at running 100's or even 1000's of vm ? are you running your vm on dedicated h/w (most likely not !) which would most likely involve migrating running vm's across server blades etc. etc. for development needs, a handful of vm's can be very easily 'managed' by your virtualization solution...
    - BadassFractal 15y ago
      Managing is a bit of an overloaded term, I agree that it could be misunderstood. I was only asking about the software used to boot, save, load and configure one or two VMs on a dev box.
  - signa11 15y ago
    > Also, what software do you use to manage that VM? could you please clarify what you mean by managing a vm ? are you looking at running 100's or even 1000's of vm ? are you running your vm on dedicated h/w (most likely not !) which would most likely involve migrating running vm's across server blades etc. etc. for development needs, a handful of vm's can be very easily 'managed' by your virtualization solution...
  - mattbillenstein 15y ago
    VirtualBox - free, good features, pretty bulletproof in my experience. As far as performance, I find it's good enough, but there are times I wish I had an SSD in my laptop to speed up some things...
    - kls 15y ago
      I actually switched back to VMWare Fusion from Virtual Box. I was having a lot of issue with the performance of VirtualBox. I will readily admit that I did not try to optimize it but out of the box, I found that VMWare was far more responsive than VirtualBox on OSX.
  - kls 15y ago
    I have the last gen of the core-duo MBP 17, it has the 2.8 GHZ processor, 8 Gigs or RAM and a solid state drive. For me the answer to your question is no. I would imagine that with the new MBP it would be better but with my set up. I really only have waits on VM boot-up and a lag when I have not used a running VM in a while. Other than that it feels just as responsive when I am actively using the VM. I mainly use it for a windows VM though because I do, do .NET development from time to time. I use my desktop VMWare software to virtualize development OS'es for server VM's I have a server box that runs ESX server, which runs server like the Oracle stack, a VM that runs the IBM stack and one that runs the windows stack. Another note about my setup is that I use VMWare Fusion I used several other products and VMware just seemed to be the most responsive under OSX.
bigjohnman 15y ago
While there are tools, usually the same tools, for both OS's... I personally have found that anyone who is serious about hacking should have a working knowledge of both OS's. Usually when I do any serious hacking, I use BackTrack. This is a Linux OS that has all the tools and tutorials that I need to crack a system. The problem I find with Mac OS X... The hacking tools are readily available on the internet if you know what you are looking for, and where to find them. So to put it simply, it takes more time to research how to hack if you are using a Mac. I just want people to know, I love my Mac. I upgraded to Lion the day it came out. I love my Ipod touch 4G, and my Ipad. However I also love my Linux desktop. I can hack just about anything with it.
SamReidHughes 15y ago
It doesn't matter. Your life will only be marginally enhanced, no matter which is better.
- dextorious 15y ago
  Yeah. Except if he starts to work with multimedia. Edit video, make professional grade midi/audio sequencing etc. Which with Linux will be a world of pain and/or deadend. Same if he wants to work with a CMYK design workflow, or in a professional DTP environment etc. A world of pain again and/or deadend.
  - dextorious 15y ago
    Downvotes, really? I can understand "religious" flames, but people at HN also disagree with statements of fact? Fact: Linux/OSS has bad/lacking/non-existent support for video editing. The fact that you can point to 2-3 half-finished NLE projects that no professional uses doesn't change this. There are the plugins, the drivers for capture options, other supporting software, etc missing. Fact: Linux/OSS had bad/lacking/non-existent support for MIDI/Audio sequencing. The fact that you can point to 2-3 half-finished DAW projects that no professional uses doesn't change this. There are the plugins, the drivers for capture options, other supporting software, etc missing. No, some semi-abandoned VST wrapper is not a solution. Fact: Linux/OSS has bad/lacking/non-existent DTP/CMYK support. No Scribus doesn't exactly cut it professionally, and the fact that GIMP got CMYK doesn't change the lack of other parts of the CMYK workflow much.
    - SamReidHughes 15y ago
      While it's true that that's a reason for some people not to use Linux, it's not a reason for him not to use Linux, and it doesn't discount the point which you replied to, that this decision probably doesn't matter. Everybody already knows that you can only do some things on some operating systems. Also, since we've established that listing statements of fact cannot be downvoted... Fact: Yo momma/guardian is so fat/obese/lardful, she added two and two and got four! Fact: Yo momma/guardian is so fat/obese/lardful, strip had a stack overflow! Fact: Yo momma/guardian is so fat/obese/lardful, she crushes ants when she steps on them!
robertdempsey 15y ago
If you look purely at what is needed to build a web app - the programming language you'll use, an editor and a web browser - and you're a lone developer (not working with a team with existing tools that you too will need), it's hard for me to come up with a solid argument for buying a Mac purely for that (though I'm a huge Apple fan). You can also use apps like Gimp on Linux to create graphics. Just about all business-ey apps you might need can be gotten for free from Google Apps if you aren't worried about the big G having all your information. If you already have a Mac though... I also agree with the points of other commenters here. If you're working on the same OS you're deploying to and have the exact same software installed changes of FUBAR'ing the server by accident are reduced.
jemeshsu 15y ago
No difference. OS X has Unix underpinning so its close to Linux. Choose the one that makes you happy. If you're looking for excuses to buy a Mac, don't, just go out and buy.
- achompas 15y ago
  I disagree. Package management is a nightmare on Mac--bad enough that I work on a Mint VM at home for my OSS contributions and on a Ubuntu VM at work. This is a significant consideration for any dev. Note: I know MacPorts exists, and I'm not a fan.
  - andrewjshults 15y ago
    Homebrew (http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/ http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/) is a significant improvement over MacPorts. The formulas also seem to be updated much quicker as well, as far as I can remember from when I last used MacPorts.