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At a previous job, we used Macs to do Java and Ruby development, and I thought that was an OK compromise to not having to maintain a bunch of Linux workstations

At a previous job, we used Macs to do Java and Ruby development, and I thought that was an OK compromise to not having to maintain a bunch of Linux workstations, but still a compromise. One time the shop took a subcontract for a bigger local shop. They were all Windows. Whenever we had to work with their devs, it seemed we fought Windows as a platform on which to run development tools as much as we did actual application problems. I know there's massive shops that live like that, but I know neither why nor how. (n.b. this was around 2014, I don't know how Windows has changed since then)

RowanH 3y ago
Ran a small software dev shop (~100 staff) inheriting windows. My god, never again... The amount of lost productivity was insane. Soon as went out to start my SaaS company, back to Mac, without a shadow of a doubt. I might actually reboot once every few months on Mac whereas my IT manager at the windows shop suggested as a solution to some problems shutting down everytime people were finished for the day ! The windows shop was non stop hardware, software issues. Laptops (whichever brand) are absolute junk with very short lifespans. Blue screens...
- systems_glitch 3y ago
  Yeah, the inefficiency was incredible -- and not just on the actual development side. We exceeded their throughput goals by double on the first try, before even attempting to optimize anything. The dataset we were running on was actual production data from their historical busiest day. We managed this on three 2011 iMacs running as the "servers." Their stated throughput goal was 50% higher than the actual busiest day when their architects came up with the design spec. They were just barely able to keep up with their busiest day on a cluster of 100 Windows servers.
cyberax 3y ago
I did a contract gig for a Windows shop recently, and I was pleasantly surprised by how well everything worked. WSL2 made a lot of things soooo much easier.
- systems_glitch 3y ago
  I love hearing that from people :P

RowanH 3y ago

Ran a small software dev shop (~100 staff) inheriting windows. My god, never again... The amount of lost productivity was insane. Soon as went out to start my SaaS company, back to Mac, without a shadow of a doubt. I might actually reboot once every few months on Mac whereas my IT manager at the windows shop suggested as a solution to some problems shutting down everytime people were finished for the day ! The windows shop was non stop hardware, software issues. Laptops (whichever brand) are absolute junk with very short lifespans. Blue screens...

systems_glitch 3y ago
Yeah, the inefficiency was incredible -- and not just on the actual development side. We exceeded their throughput goals by double on the first try, before even attempting to optimize anything. The dataset we were running on was actual production data from their historical busiest day. We managed this on three 2011 iMacs running as the "servers." Their stated throughput goal was 50% higher than the actual busiest day when their architects came up with the design spec. They were just barely able to keep up with their busiest day on a cluster of 100 Windows servers.

cyberax 3y ago

I did a contract gig for a Windows shop recently, and I was pleasantly surprised by how well everything worked. WSL2 made a lot of things soooo much easier.

systems_glitch 3y ago
I love hearing that from people :P