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Poll HN: What operating system do you primarily develop on?
Clarification: the operating system where e.g. your IDE runs on. Not the deployment target.
Results from 2022: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30055031
- _joel 10mo agoWhat about cloud based IDEs?
- folli 10mo agoDepends: for hobby purposes, or what my daytime job forces on me?
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- teknopaul 10mo ago22 years in the same Corp, targeting Linux systems since day one, and only in the first two years, and this year, have I been permitted a Linux desktop. +2 years slugging in a vm. Developing with out bash is just unnecessary work. My productivity has more than doubled. easily. I manually type passwords half as much and when I do that is to access Microsoft services. 2fa wastes a huge amount of time. Because nothing that needs 2fa is scriptable.
- pixelpoet 10mo agoFinally bailed Windows this year after a lifetime of MSVC, couldn't be happier with the decision. I'm actually kind of grateful for Windows 11 being so impossibly shit and forcing so many people to finally make the switch! Now I use Arch, btw.
- technothrasher 10mo agoI recently moved from many many years on Windows to full time on Linux for my bare metal embedded development, largely because of ST Micro's good Linux support with their tools.
- user432678 10mo agoMind me asking what do you use instead of MSVC?
- pixelpoet 10mo agoSomewhat reluctantly, VS Code; but I'm checking out CLion as well and not hating it as much as I did last time. I find CMake intensely offensive, just the whole worldview of every tool demanding you learn some DSL to do basic things when I have a 4K monitor and just want to select a bunch of cpp and h files to build, but I've since been forced to swallow this bitter pill for work reasons, and I guess it's time to give tools based on it another go.
- internetguy 10mo agonixos or arch for me.
- everlier 10mo agoTo save a click, in 2022, the distribution was: Linux - 46.25%, MacOS - 32.21%, Windows - 21.54%
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- mellosouls 10mo agoNot sure this covers popular mixes, eg WSL or considers AI clients. My IDE is Windows (VSCode or Cursor); but I'm also using ChatGPT in the browser and various Linux command line tools (connecting through Windows Terminal to WSL Redhat). There should probably be a fully hybrid option in the poll.
- dal 10mo agoIt does, if you use WSL you're OS is Windows.
- epolanski 10mo agoBut he's de facto developing on a Linux machine.
- petcat 10mo agoIt's not a linux machine. The computer is booted and managed by Windows. Linux is an application running on the Windows machine.
- vntok 10mo agoThe question is not about booting, it's about which OS is running the environment where development happens (writing code, compiling code, testing code, etc). > Clarification: the operating system where e.g. your IDE runs on If you're developing on a Linux VM that you connect to via a browser tab opened from your Windows laptop, you're developing on Linux for all intents and purposes. That is, Windows was not doing enough for you so you switched to Linux for dev tasks. By the same token, if your IDE is running in WSL, for all intents and purposes you're developing on Linux. A virtual machine, sure, but the virtualized OS is a Linux variant. Because installing the IDE on Windows itself was not doing enough for you.
- jsheard 10mo agoWSL2 is a full blown Linux VM under the hood, running a real Linux distro and real Linux kernel. It's Linux in every way that matters.
- marginalia_nu 10mo agoLinux personally, and professionally last time I wasn't self-employed. Mac is too expensive, Windows 11 is cruel and unusual.
- lysace 10mo agoMac Mini M4 or Macbook Air M4 is not expensive. Just bought the latter (extensive rebates at the moment) to replace my Intel-based 2019 MPB. Wow! It's pretty much the perfect laptop, at that price. My primary complaint so far: The green color LED on the magsafe connector is not the same green as the LED on the caps lock key. This wouldn't have passed the Steve Jobs approval.
- marginalia_nu 10mo agoHonestly I'm not much of a laptop stan. They're IMO overpriced or crap, or the case of HP, overpriced and crap.
- lysace 10mo agoWintel laptops certainly are. I bet you would love the Mac Mini M4 though. (I've spent some time perusing your site during the numerous times it's been posted here.) Use MacOS Sequoia (15.x) for at least the next year though.
- jsk2600 10mo agoWindows options should be Windows (no WSL) or Windows (+WSL)
- q3k 10mo agoWhere's OpenBSD or Plan9?
- procaryote 10mo agoDead? ;)
- q3k 10mo agoThere are dozens of us! Dozens!
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- petcat 10mo agoI never found anything better than the latest macOS machines. I ran ubuntu for years and then switched back to mac just because I don't have the time to tinker and fiddle with stuff in Linux that just randomly makes the computer run hot, or a monitor to not work, or fonts looking awful. MacOS is just the sweet spot of great desktop + great unix-style devbox.
- submain 10mo agoYeah, I run macos for the same reason. However, I went back to linux on my personal laptop (nixos on my case) and I am pleasantly surprised how many things now just work. The only thing that still annoys me is the laptop not sleeping properly and therefore using too much battery power when idle. It has made great strides on the last two or so years.
- epolanski 10mo agoUX' been degrading on MacOS for ages. On top of that I've been locked out of my machine and Apple ID and they just kept sending me emails that in some weeks they were going to reset my password, and they sent me those emails for 2 months before I got access to my apple id and machine again, proof[1]. They just kept not obliging the "2 weeks" (which is already mad when I've given you my secret password and I've verified my email and phone already). And they did not respect the two weeks 3 times in a row! That is beyond disgusting and Apple has never got a single $ from me since, I only own a MBP I use on the move because a client has sent me an M3 Max with 48 GBs so it made no sense to at least not use it. [1] https://i.imgur.com/9OYvKu5.png https://i.imgur.com/9OYvKu5.png
- k2xl 10mo agoCompletely unrelated, but how does one create a poll on HN?
- whstl 10mo agohttp://news.ycombinator.com/newpoll http://news.ycombinator.com/newpoll It's in the FAQ.
- hofrogs 10mo agoFirst time seeing a poll here, didn't know that was even possible.
- jiehong 10mo agoMacOS
- zwilliamson 10mo agoOmarchy has been a blast to use
- cpburns2009 10mo agoI need to give Omarchy and Hyprland a real try at some point. I love the idea of a tiling window manager. I just haven't used one in 10 years and it's a big adjustment to classic window management.
- jsk2600 10mo agoYou can just use apps on fullscreen with no tiling, that's how I use Omarchy most of the time.
- clausecker 10mo agoFreeBSD
- bikelang 10mo agoMacOS for work - Linux for personal
- melenaboija 10mo agoLXC containers on top of Debian in a specific work station just for this. I have one generic container to start everything, and then create specific ones if projects get bigger. This is by far the best option to isolate and easily create development environments that I found. I connect to the containers from VS Code running on Mac OS.
- Flere-Imsaho 10mo agoIncus is a great way to manage LXC containers, after LXD came under the Canonical umbrella.
- alecsm 10mo agoLinux at home, MacOS at work.
- alluro2 10mo agoI use Arch, btw
- epolanski 10mo agoTechnically I use all 3. I mostly work on my desktop which is Windows + WSL 2 with Ubuntu and use a MBP on the move.
- bArray 10mo agoI think it's possible we see some people now use other OSes, there should at least be an "Other" option. The *BSD's, Nix and some more bespoke options.
- baq 10mo agomacos, unfortunately. getting more hostile each year.
- Zigurd 10mo agoMy current project uses a cross-platform SDK. My most comfortable development platform is macOS, and that's what I use 90% of the time on this project. Occasionally I work on embedded android systems. For that I use Linux. If I'm on a consulting job and the client has everyone using Windows, I go with the flow, but my impression is that Windows has become end-user hostile, and it's getting worse. Maybe that's just because my permissions and network access are never set right on the first try when a client needs a machine set up for an outside consultant. Subjectively, Windows is the itchy sweater of development platforms.
- vasilzhigilei 10mo agoUse Linux 99% of the time. Still have dual boot for Windows only for Paint.NET.
- reddalo 10mo ago>only for Paint.NET Have you ever tried Krita or Pinta?
- voidfunc 10mo agoLinux but its WSL via Windows.
- shwaj 10mo agoI use VSCode on a Mac, using remote SSH to edit code on a remote Linux machine. So I voted twice I’ve never been able to get used to default Linux key bindings, and never been able to customize them to feel quite right.
- GalaxyNova 10mo agoWe mostly develop on Linux, but target all three OSs.
- andrath 10mo agoLinux and BSD (Free and Open mostly)
- 5- 10mo agohave been using linux ever since i got my first personal computer. our customers all run linux in production too, so it's very easy and natural to develop and test the software in its usual environment (although i wish my laptop had eight times the ram to match). my ide is linux: https://plan9.io/cm/cs/upe/ https://plan9.io/cm/cs/upe/
- Animats 10mo agoLinux. I retired the last Windows machine last year. Firefox on Linux, though, is not working very well. It keeps hanging during long typing inputs. No CPU or disk usage, just stuck. And it uses so much memory that the OOM killer sometimes kills it. I was never a Linux fanatic. It's just that I considered an operating system with ads unacceptable. I rather liked Windows 7.
- stOneskull 10mo agowhich linux distro do you use? i distro hop and haven't experienced that with firefox for years.
- netllama 10mo agoMost likely is hardware specific (some driver bug).
- thenews 10mo ago90% MAC, 10% Debian
- EricrRaible 10mo agoLinux subsystem (debian) on an arm Chromebook. It Just Works.
- SunshineTheCat 10mo agoI have to develop on Windows for work and then code on a Mac for my own projects at home. Going from a project on my Mac Studio at home to my Windows PC at work makes me want to tear my eyes out. There are so many things that are just plain worse on Windows when it comes to coding: messing with WSL, constant driver updates, every Windows link opening in Edge etc. Haven't tried Linux for a while but maybe it's time.
- dbg31415 10mo agomacOS, but mostly for the hardware. The operating system matters less to me than having a good screen and a machine that isn’t made of crappy plastic. After nearly 20 years years on a MacBook Pro, it’s hard to go back to anything that feels cheap. =P
- qq99 10mo agoWin11, editor runs on Win11, all development happens inside WSL2 (Ubuntu) Basically all the bonuses of Windows re: gaming, with a great developer experience (like Linux/OSX). The prime annoyances are: - exposing a port to the entire LAN (for local phone debug) is non-trivial - I imagine Android or phone dev might be a bit harder re: simulator, luckily I don't do this - dev that spawns native windows would by default spawn through some WM layer with X11 or something (and they are laggy)
- howdyhowdy123 10mo ago[flagged]
- noisem4ker 10mo agoYou might find the StackOverflow surveys more representative: they crown Windows as the most used OS, with a solid margin. https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2025/technology/#1-computer-operating-systems https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2025/technology/#1-computer-...
- howdyhowdy123 10mo ago[flagged]
- onraglanroad 10mo ago[flagged]
- howdyhowdy123 10mo ago[flagged]
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- onraglanroad 10mo ago[flagged]
- tomhow 10mo agoPlease don't sneer at the community. The HN audience disproportionately includes experienced programmers, data scientists, machine learning experts, sysadmins, other advanced tech professionals, power users and hacker types who like to be able to control and customize their tools. It's not surprising that Linux and macOS are more popular here than in mainstream society. However it's not the HN way to be arrogant or elitist against the broader population. Sure, it happens but it's against the guidelines and we penalize accounts that act that way. So we just don't want any of this kind of rhetoric here, whether it's "pro" or "anti" the HN community and its ways. If you'd take a moment to read the guidelines and make an effort to observe them in future we'd be grateful. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- whitehexagon 10mo agoAsahi Linux with Kate (editor) & Fossil (scm). - No idea why I wasted so much time switching away from macos. It feels like my computer belongs to me again. 'It just works better'
- camtarn 10mo agoI'd prefer to run Linux, but one of my two primary dev targets requires a proprietary Windows IDE (Automation Studio by B&R). So running that on Windows then using WSL to develop for my Linux servers is the easy path.
- winecamera 10mo agoI'd love to use macOS, but macOS's font rendering on low DPI monitors (2560x1440) looks awful compared to Windows's font rendering. It's to the point that it's unusable for coding, so I just use Windows with WSL.
- Leftium 10mo agoMy 30-inch 2560x1440 external monitor looked fuzzy/blurry on MacOS until I forced HiDPI. (Mac mini) MacOS only offers HiDPI for certain resolutions. There is a free OSS program that unlocks HiDPI for other resolutions: https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay I just tried disabling HiDPI at 2560x1440, and it looks quite bad! With HiDPI, I'd say it looks similar (if not better) than Windows.
- winecamera 10mo agoI'll have to give this a shot. Does it reduce your overall desktop working area?
- Leftium 10mo agoThe layout/pixel density remains exactly the same (you can also get better scaled resolutions, if desired). (Most) things just look less fuzzy. It's hard to find good before/after shots. The difference is much more dramatic in real life: - https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/10oy6xo/i_use_switchresx_for_1440p_monitor_before_after/ https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/10oy6xo/i_use_switchre... - https://youtu.be/eyckJiws_30 https://youtu.be/eyckJiws_30
- baq 10mo agoBetterDisplay is $15 or so and it changes the equation from ’horrible’ to ‘good enough’. Still not as good as other OSes but at least you don’t have to buy an expensive monitor. Why Apple decided to not support low dpi is beyond me.
- beAbU 10mo ago
- graemep 10mo agoLinux. I do almost entirely backend stuff that gets deployed to Linux servers so there is little reason to consider anything else.
- politelemon 10mo agoPleasantly happy and surprised by Linux after many years. I'm not happy with the insidious lock-in that Apple and Microsoft engage in. When I'm developing I need the machine to be by own, and only a few distros provide that. I do wish to try kde though because it receives a lot of praise but just can't figure out which distro is the sweet spot, allowing for games, but good package management too.
- stOneskull 10mo agokubuntu is pretty cool. i would recommend trying that.
- namblooc 10mo agoI'm surprised at the small number of Windows users. At my workplace every computer has Windows installed and we didn't really have a choice about it, although I never asked. Also, as a fullstack web developer, I don't really see why I would prefer one over the other, since they all support VSCode and I can write code on any one of them. But then again, I exist inside of an echochamber of Windows users so I'm pretty clueless on how development is different on other OSs.
- happytoexplain 10mo agoI was surprised in the opposite direction - I thought Windows would be <5% for dev. Big, cheap contracting agencies skew the Windows number up globally, and even just in the US, but this is just HN users so I expected a much smaller representation.
- baq 10mo agoMost developers don’t read HN.
- happytoexplain 10mo agoThat's what I mean - I'd think the subset of developers who read HN would be even more Unixy than the average developer.
- layer8 10mo agoHacker News isn’t really representative of the larger dev world.
- sam_lowry_ 10mo agoDies WSL count as Linux? IntelliJ + WSL in Terminal + Docker.
- culi 10mo agoI went from Windows to a VM running Ubuntu, to WSL, to a Mac. Each switch felt like a massive upgrade and I haven't looked back. I'm new to macs and I hear veterans complaining about the quality of the OS but compared to Windows which was adding ads in their search bars at the time I left... I guess I've just been conditioned to have a low bar
- Anonyneko 10mo agoUsed to be Windows, but Linux being able to run Docker containers without emulation is a killer feature for me (I am primarily developing backends that also run on Linux). Even if the driver issues are still really annoying.
- QuiEgo 10mo agoI think laptop of your choice as a thin client to Linux box in a data center is super common. Most people seem to pick a Mac as their thin client, since ssh works well natively on it, it runs MS office, and the Windows laptop options are never the “nice” Windows options for some reason, but various flavors of plastic hate boxes that get 1/2 the battery life of the Macs IT offers.
- commandersaki 10mo agoI'm happy to do this as all I need is a vi-like, but I don't really see this happening from people in the IDE camp. I understand that VS Code does support development in a target linux host or container, but I just don't really see people doing it.
- netllama 10mo agoCurious what industry you work in where thin clients are still a thing. Most people are doing far more than ssh to some remote server.
- QuiEgo 10mo agoI work in firmware. Firmware build times can be comically bad. Most firmware builds are heavily optimized and you often build the same codebase dozens of times with each build optimized for one particular hardware configuration of many. You then get to deploy to a legion of test devices (also managed by machines you remoting into) and see which special snowflake you managed to break this time (it somehow is never the one you sanity checked your changes on during development :-D). It's common to throw (a lot) of compute at the problem, and at some point it's way nicer if the 100+ cores you're cranking to 100% CPU for a few min are somewhere you're not sitting next to. It's also nice that those resources can be shared among many devs so they don't sit idle most of the time. So, you end up with the thin client pattern. It's usually practical to build locally as well for a few particular targets, which might be a random dev board at your desk. But if I have a remote build system with a few hundred cores cores and a few dozen TB of ram, why would I not just use it instead of using my laptop? Athough firmware and hardware is such a huge, varied field many people likely have different experiences. Brining up a big custom SoC is way different than bringing up a board with an FPGA and all off-the-shelf stuff. What's "far more than ssh to some remote server" mean to you? It's always fascinating how different everyone's experiences are.
- jbv027 10mo agoLinux for many years. Windows and Mac feels the same to me: they are not configurable enough. You just use almost default setup or you are out of luck.
- Apreche 10mo agoRegardless of which OS is running on the bare metal, I do my development inside of Linux devcontainers.
- jgb1984 10mo agoDebian: The Universal Operating System, same as the past 25 years.
- doublerabbit 10mo agoFreeBSD.
- dehugger 10mo agomac, because 1) posix compliant and 2) there is no viable consumer alternative to apples silicon. maybe once AMD catches up i can swap to a framework
- giobox 10mo agoOld enough to remember when work place mandated Windows machines were common place - now it feels like things have flipped in software dev, and macOS has become the "workOS". While no fan of Windows, I now find in my older age I am much less inclined to run Macs for personal/home use than I was 20 years ago - it feels too much like being at work now! While I of course agree modern Mac laptops are great and Apple's silicon efforts have been superb, just seeing one makes me think of work and not pleasure now, somewhat ironically how I also felt about beige IBM boxes in the early 90s...
- mrkstu 10mo agoJob’s aversion to making a ‘gaming machine’ has paid off these decades later…
- Froedlich 10mo agoMy development is on Linux. Some of my work has to run on Windows as well; VirtualBox has several Windows VMs, a ReactOS VM, and Wine for testing. I've never had to deal with the BSDs or Macs. If a customer was willing to pay for me to come up to speed on either of them I would consider it, but I have no interest otherwise. I am slowly coming up to speed on Haiku, and now that most of my application and development software runs on Haiku and its hardware compatibility is much better, I'm looking to eventually move from Linux to Haiku for my primary workstation.
- alfiedotwtf 10mo agoIf your editor is full screen, and you have a terminal emulator to build, test, and run, does an OS actually matter these days? VS Code is good enough for 90% of grunt work, and Emacs will give you 110% more, but at the end of the day, you live in your editor not your OS (or maybe it’s just me).
- stonecharioteer 10mo agoI ssh into my Linux PC from a macbook. Live in tmux.
- vermaden 10mo agoFreeBSD.
- jeditobe 10mo agoReactOS
- irvingprime 10mo agoFor many years I've developed on a Linux VM running on a Windows host. At a couple of jobs I ran a Linux VM on a MacOS host. This way, my development environment remains stable and portable and the thing I use to read email and surf the web is whatever. It works for me.
- ivanjermakov 10mo agoTLDR there are polls on HN.
- hulitu 10mo ago> Poll HN: What operating system do you primarily develop on? Slackware.