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Abhijeet Singh
Abhijeet Singh

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Need Advice: What OS should I use with the new laptop I am planning to purchase?

Hi,
I have been a developer for the past 1.25 years. During this time, my development machine was on OS X majorly.
Before that, I was a Windows user who used Windows Subsystem for Linux as development environment. I haven't much tried Ubuntu or other Linux destros, except using their shell in Windows.

I am considering purchasing a new laptop tomorrow, but before I purchase it, I would like to seek advice of developers here.

What OS should I prefer in the new laptop?
How is WSL2 evolved as from development point of view? Should I consider OS X or Linux for development purpose?
Thanks.

Top comments (3)

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samuelabreu profile image
Samuel Abreu

It depends:

First on what tech stack you will be using, if depends on Windows only tools is better stay on it.

Second, if you can't waste a lot of time learning a new environment, stay on what you already familiar.

Third, if you have a lot of time and aren't afraid of breaking stuff you can choose rolling release distros, Manjaro or even Arch, if not try Ubuntu, Fedora or Suse. Those distros have a lot of packages an answers online to help you with most of issues you will encounter.

About WSL 2 i tried and its a great progress from WSL 1, great if you like or have to use Windows, but isn't a linux replacement.

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rushsteve1 profile image
Steven vanZyl

Development on Windows is honestly terrible. WSL 1 and 2 made it better but it's still pretty bad.

Development on MacOS is alright. It's UNIX-y enough to provide a fairly good experience, and Homebrew is a good package manager. But it does mean you're basically locked to Apple and all the quirks that come with that.

Linux is generally the best developer experience, but a mixed bag of user experience. If you're new to Linux don't go in expecting things to be like Windows or MacOS.
Also I would avoid Ubuntu or anything based on it. I have tried dozens of distros, and I have yet to find one as buggy as Ubuntu.

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alchermd profile image
John Alcher

OSx, and then triple boot with Linux and Windows.