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Is it possible to develop web and Android apps on Windows?
I had a MacBook Pro for a long time that I used to code on. During COVID I decided to switch to a Windows laptop. I started doing a lot of web development on my local machine recently. I'm also starting to build an Android app. While setting up the web development environment, I quickly realized that running everything on WSL is the only way to go. Now that I'm trying to build an Android app, WSL is reaching its limits as I would need to run a nested Android emulator inside WSL, which essentially doesn't work. Are there any web/app developers left that are using Windows? How do you do it? Is mostly everyone out there just using a Mac?
- Alifatisk 3y agoFlutter can target both, any thoughts on it?
- jbirgmei 3y agoI've tried it but this is more a question about the OS to develop on, less about the platforms on which the app will run
- thesuperbigfrog 3y ago>> I quickly realized that running everything on WSL is the only way to go. If you are using WSL for all the development, why not run Linux on bare metal? This could be done as a separate development machine or by a clean re-install on the laptop depending on how much you need Windows.
- jbirgmei 3y agoWhenever I used Linux as an everyday OS it ended up being a huge time sink, although I have to admit that was 10 years ago.
- beardyw 3y agoLinux by its nature provides the greatest scope for wasting time, but nowadays an install of something like Ubuntu will just work. If you want it to be just like Windows ...
- CoolCold 3y agoIs it something specific to android emulator? Having macos to be run in nested virtualization, https://dev.to/nicole/running-macos-on-windows-10-with-wsl2-kvm-and-qemu-21e1 https://dev.to/nicole/running-macos-on-windows-10-with-wsl2-... what stops android emulator from doing the same? What about WSA usage, not helpful as well for your case?
- jbirgmei 3y agoWSL Android emulator runs theoretically, but in practice is very glitchy. I did not know about WSA, thanks for the pointer.
- HelloNurse 3y agoI've had no trouble (well, only portable trouble) with React Native (Android) on Windows: Grail, Android Studio and SDK emulators, npm and pnpm, React Native command line tools, Git, Java, Visual Studio Code (to host the React Native Debugger). What do you do that works better on WSL?
- jbirgmei 3y ago* The lack of a serious bash command line and its associated tools on Windows is cumbersome. * Most of the documentation for running web servers and developing backends assumes you're running Linux when things get complicated. * Even Microsoft themselves recommend WSL for professional Node.js development: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dev-environment/javascript/nodejs-on-windows https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dev-environment/ja...