6 ms·

One thought I had about MS as a development machine a while back: If you want your Unix toolchains for development, you could still have them. The Surface Pro

by api 12y ago

One thought I had about MS as a development machine a while back: If you want your Unix toolchains for development, you could still have them. The Surface Pro is powerful enough to run Linux in Vagrant or another virtualization engine. So you could just run a virtual dev environment. Virtual environments are sometimes better anyway, since you can replicate your operational infrastructure. Windows 10 is looking good. If it gets really, really good they might close the gap with Apple for professional users. Their glastnost/perestroika trend of opening up and embracing the dev community isn't hurting their reputation either. I really think Satya Nadella is turning the company around.

lukeschlather 12y ago
I really hate using WinSCP for file transfer between Windows and the guest OS. If Windows shipped with a native sshfs-alike, I'd probably be ok, but I really prefer native Ubuntu development.
- zmmmmm 12y ago
  There are lots of alternative solutions to share file systems between a VM and host ... is that all you're trying to solve? VirtualBox has it built in.
  - lukeschlather 12y ago
    No, I'm also trying to share between my laptop and a remote server. (actually, I very rarely use VMs hosted locally)
    - mreiland 12y ago
      I use a samba share, it works a treat and in the 3-4 years I've been running it I've never had much maintenance on it outside of the occasional update to the OS.
    - r00fus 12y ago
      I think you confused everyone with your terminology in your parent comment - "guest OS" is VM speak.
- jerf 12y ago
  I don't have a click&go solution because I don't have this problem, but you could certainly serve a Samba share out of the guest OS or something.
- StavrosK 12y ago
  What's wrong with VirtualBox shared folders? Also, Windows-native sshfs-alike is SMB.
- tomc1985 12y ago
  Set up samba? (thats how I work) What about NFS?
- dade_ 12y ago
  https://chocolatey.org/ https://chocolatey.org/ Choco install git.install /GitAndUnixToolsOnPath Choco upgrade git.install It is a beautiful world with and my slashes work both ways!
- WorldWideWayne 12y ago
  I run Fedora 21 w/ full screen Gnome 3 in VirtualBox, so I can use Linux desktop tools and no SCP is needed. The touch screen even works with Gnome. Even rdp remoting into my Surface from my desktop to use the Linux guest has also been the best performing Windows to Linux remote control that I've used for the amount of setup time. On a gigabit network, it's really nice.
- lsc 12y ago
  I use cygwin for ssh/scp, even if I don't need cygwin for anything else
- thom 12y ago
  You can map drives from a client over Remote Desktop if that's at all helpful.
- lloeki 12y ago
  Using (boot2)docker/docker-machine+virtualbox and mapping a volume to the host OS (which is trivial) might be viable. I use it on OS X to do linux-only stuff (such as loop-mounting an ext4 image).
gamesbrainiac 12y ago
Thats exactly what I tend to do on a Windows machine, and I don't miss linux at all. Feels like having a VPS (which it really is) ready at all times with awesome bandwidth.
mooreds 12y ago
Absolutely! I usually buy windows machines because of price/performance, and, to be honest, because I know how to make windows work for me and don't want to learn mac idioms. However, the first thing I do is install git for windows, which gives me bash to navigate the filesystem, and then vagrant/virtualbox/ubuntu for development.
- jdmichal 12y ago
  Have you given PowerShell a try? If so, how did you feel about it compared to using bash on Windows?
  - sz4kerto 12y ago
    I don't think it is really possible to 'give Powershell a try'. PS is extremely powerful, but there's a lot to learn. It is not a drop-in replacement for bash at all because it's so different.
- eosrei 12y ago
  I highly recommend http://babun.github.io/ http://babun.github.io/ for Windows based development. It's a well configured cygwin install with many standard addons included. Helps me keep my sanity while switching between Linux, Windows and OSX.
smrtinsert 12y ago
That being said, I just returned a surface pro 3 for a tablet. The display is nice, the feel is great, but the omg the resolution and font issues. Forget it, you consistently feel how much you have to deal with the OS itself to get it out of your way. Until tablet pcs are ready I still have a desktop win box and a mac mini and my tablet. I'm also spoiled by the App Store concept. Windows needs to force it on developers. One tap installs on Android and great dependency tools like homebrew or Leiningen have made me never want to download stuff manually ever again.
- tonyedgecombe 12y ago
  The day Microsoft forces the app store on me is the day I stop developing for Windows.

by api 12y ago

lukeschlather 12y ago

I really hate using WinSCP for file transfer between Windows and the guest OS. If Windows shipped with a native sshfs-alike, I'd probably be ok, but I really prefer native Ubuntu development.

zmmmmm 12y ago
There are lots of alternative solutions to share file systems between a VM and host ... is that all you're trying to solve? VirtualBox has it built in.
- lukeschlather 12y ago
  No, I'm also trying to share between my laptop and a remote server. (actually, I very rarely use VMs hosted locally)
  - mreiland 12y ago
    I use a samba share, it works a treat and in the 3-4 years I've been running it I've never had much maintenance on it outside of the occasional update to the OS.
  - r00fus 12y ago
    I think you confused everyone with your terminology in your parent comment - "guest OS" is VM speak.
jerf 12y ago
I don't have a click&go solution because I don't have this problem, but you could certainly serve a Samba share out of the guest OS or something.
StavrosK 12y ago
What's wrong with VirtualBox shared folders? Also, Windows-native sshfs-alike is SMB.
tomc1985 12y ago
Set up samba? (thats how I work) What about NFS?
dade_ 12y ago
https://chocolatey.org/ https://chocolatey.org/ Choco install git.install /GitAndUnixToolsOnPath Choco upgrade git.install It is a beautiful world with and my slashes work both ways!
WorldWideWayne 12y ago
I run Fedora 21 w/ full screen Gnome 3 in VirtualBox, so I can use Linux desktop tools and no SCP is needed. The touch screen even works with Gnome. Even rdp remoting into my Surface from my desktop to use the Linux guest has also been the best performing Windows to Linux remote control that I've used for the amount of setup time. On a gigabit network, it's really nice.
lsc 12y ago
I use cygwin for ssh/scp, even if I don't need cygwin for anything else
thom 12y ago
You can map drives from a client over Remote Desktop if that's at all helpful.
lloeki 12y ago
Using (boot2)docker/docker-machine+virtualbox and mapping a volume to the host OS (which is trivial) might be viable. I use it on OS X to do linux-only stuff (such as loop-mounting an ext4 image).

gamesbrainiac 12y ago

Thats exactly what I tend to do on a Windows machine, and I don't miss linux at all. Feels like having a VPS (which it really is) ready at all times with awesome bandwidth.

mooreds 12y ago

Absolutely! I usually buy windows machines because of price/performance, and, to be honest, because I know how to make windows work for me and don't want to learn mac idioms. However, the first thing I do is install git for windows, which gives me bash to navigate the filesystem, and then vagrant/virtualbox/ubuntu for development.

jdmichal 12y ago
Have you given PowerShell a try? If so, how did you feel about it compared to using bash on Windows?
- sz4kerto 12y ago
  I don't think it is really possible to 'give Powershell a try'. PS is extremely powerful, but there's a lot to learn. It is not a drop-in replacement for bash at all because it's so different.
eosrei 12y ago
I highly recommend http://babun.github.io/ http://babun.github.io/ for Windows based development. It's a well configured cygwin install with many standard addons included. Helps me keep my sanity while switching between Linux, Windows and OSX.

smrtinsert 12y ago

That being said, I just returned a surface pro 3 for a tablet. The display is nice, the feel is great, but the omg the resolution and font issues. Forget it, you consistently feel how much you have to deal with the OS itself to get it out of your way. Until tablet pcs are ready I still have a desktop win box and a mac mini and my tablet. I'm also spoiled by the App Store concept. Windows needs to force it on developers. One tap installs on Android and great dependency tools like homebrew or Leiningen have made me never want to download stuff manually ever again.

tonyedgecombe 12y ago
The day Microsoft forces the app store on me is the day I stop developing for Windows.