DEV Community

Cover image for What OS do you use for development?
Madza
Madza Subscriber

Posted on

What OS do you use for development?

Do you mainly develop on single OS or multiple OS on separate machines?

If you work with multiple OS on a single machine, do you prefer to use dual boot or virtualization tech like VirtualBox, WSL, etc?

Top comments (116)

Collapse
 
louislow profile image
Louis Low • Edited

I married to Linux Debian (Ubuntu) for almost 20 years. Using it for embedded, desktop, and web development. But, I still have Windows running Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator in Oracle Virtualbox.

Collapse
 
patarapolw profile image
Pacharapol Withayasakpunt

Just curious, how much RAM, CPU do you allocate to Windows in this case?

Collapse
 
louislow profile image
Louis Low • Edited

I will very honest with you. I only allocate 1 Core CPU and 512MB RAM for that Windows VM. Everything running smoothly and no graphic chopping at all. I never ever shutdown the WinOS. I use the Virtuabox Save State feature. The VM need few seconds boot up the WinOS and I straight away using only Adobe PS/AI. Then, the VM closing is also take few seconds. I've been let the settings stays in this way and using it like forever. My laptop is a Lenovo ThinkPad X1.

My laptop screenshot

Collapse
 
afsharm profile image
Afshar

I am using Ubuntu, but it not very easy. The team is using Windows. Some of tools they use does not work properly on Ubuntu. Some others does not exists in the Ubuntu.

Collapse
 
cyberhck profile image
Nishchal Gautam

For database, use jetbrains datagrip on Linux systems

Collapse
 
louislow profile image
Louis Low

Make the Windows software run hybrid on Ubuntu by using Virtualbox and or WINE. But I never find any difficulty looking development tool for Linux.

Collapse
 
stereoplegic profile image
Mike Bybee

If you need virtualization, KVM is more performant than Virtualbox. It's worth a little extra study to set it up, especially if you have an extra graphics card that can take advantage of GPU passthrough.

Thread Thread
 
louislow profile image
Louis Low • Edited

I would like to try on KVM one day. The GPU passthrough is an attractive feature to me. But Virtualbox works fine, the VM no lagging or choppy graphic on Adobe PS/AI. Just these two Windows softwares I have been using.

Collapse
 
afsharm profile image
Afshar

You make me less frightened. Almost all people around me are using Windows. Sometimes I feel a bit isolated. I use LibreOffice while people use Microsoft Office. People use MS SQL Management Tool while I have no other choice than SQLCMD in command line. This list is more longer.

Thread Thread
 
sa2908 profile image
Sanket Agarwal

You also use office.com if you want Microsoft services.

Thread Thread
 
darrentmorgan profile image
darrentmorgan

Yeah I agree with this. LibreOffice just doesn't cut it for some of the things I need to do. Office online is actually really good.

Collapse
 
syedjafor profile image
Syed Jafor ⚡

By the way I use arch.

Collapse
 
rgin profile image
reilg

I'm surprised this is the only Arch comment on here xD

Collapse
 
syedjafor profile image
Syed Jafor ⚡

Coz it's not that user friendly but once you master in it you will fall in love.

Collapse
 
madza profile image
Madza

Lol 😂😂

Collapse
 
ng_update profile image
Kieran • Edited

I grew up on Windows starting back with MS-DOS all the way to Win10. Vista broke my heart, so I started using Ubuntu for the first time (2008?), just to check it out. Back then, it didn't run Netflix (i think it couldn't install SilverLight at the time?). Ultimately, I switched back to Windows, but I set up a dual-boot and kept Ubuntu on another partition. Fast Forward about a decade and I started Developing. Windows 10 was a HUGE improvement, but I got really tired of waiting for everything to load. A program I really liked told me to check out Ubuntu, so I decided to give it another go.
Omg. Linux.
I never really used cli in windows that much, but I took to the terminal like a fish to water.
Open-Source software was a revelation to me (I only started developing 2 years ago, and got serious about it this year), so I started looking for alternatives to common windows programs all over the internet. I'll likely never pay for software again.
IT'S SO FAST!!! The only programs I usually have to wait to load for any amount of time are Chrome and VSCode. To get around this (mostly), I switched to chromium (though of course I still have chrome and firefox installed for browser checking). I currently HAVE to use VSCode, but I think I prefer Atom. They both have most of the same plugins, but atom just seems to run faster.
NOTE: Linux Gaming is Garbage. Not just a little bit, either. I tried to install SWTOR and SC2 using WINE and the entire experience was a nightmare. I know Steam for Linux came out, but the titles I would be interested in are not available for Linux (yet? see SilverLight). That will probably change in the future, as the Linux Community is growing rapidly, but for now I'll stick to console gaming when I want to play (there's something ironic to me in the fact that I have to do SO much work to play a game on Linux that it's just not worth it. If I'm gonna spend that much time trying to build something, I'd rather just BUILD something.)
That being said, I am interested in checking out Windows 10 with WSL installed. Will it be the best of both worlds, or a sludgy, bogged-down, productivity-draining mess? I'll find out when I get a new laptop with windows pre-installed. Until then, I'm sticking with Linux.

Collapse
 
darrentmorgan profile image
darrentmorgan

WSL is good. You should try it before you knock it. Specifically WSL 2.

Collapse
 
mihaylov profile image
Petar Petrov • Edited

Msys2 is also worth mentioning msys2.org/ its my personal preffered option.

Collapse
 
minhnnn profile image
minhnnn

how did you install it, i tried it and it was a mess with a
lots of error, in the end i had to go back to ubuntu, sorry my english isn't good

Thread Thread
 
darrentmorgan profile image
darrentmorgan

I used this guide: docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/w...

I use windows 10. You need to upgrade to Windows build 1903 or higher for some features(docker etc). Also, WSL 1 was not very good imho. With this Windows build you can install WSL 2 which is (from my simple understanding) more of a Virtual Machine.

Thread Thread
 
Sloan, the sloth mascot
Comment deleted
 
darrentmorgan profile image
darrentmorgan

If you are running through terminal, you would treat this as localhost (it's pretty much a virtual machine). I use vs code and I would recommend using the plugin for WSL2. You can connect to a remote host (your linux vm instance) and operate on it.

I've ran a number of different projects from it, django, node js, docker django etc.

Thread Thread
 
minhnnn profile image
minhnnn

thank you man, I think the problem is I run my project without docker or any other supporting software :)) and that is a very bad idea.

Collapse
 
madza profile image
Madza

Thanks for the extended insight 🔥👍

Collapse
 
banji220 profile image
Banji

Pop!_OS(Linux)

Collapse
 
bimlas profile image
bimlas

I used Windows 7 + Kubuntu dual boot, but it was very cumbersome to have to switch between operating systems due to different features. I’ve also tried Linux running in VirtualBox for a short time, but it’s not effective in any way (it eats up a lot of resources, I don’t even get everything working in it, etc.).

Now I use only Linux Mint XFCE for work and dev (I realized that not only Windows but also KDE is redundant for me), Windows only for gaming with non-Linux friends.

Collapse
 
bitsondatadev profile image
Brian "bits" Olsen

Work dev: Mac.
Play dev: Ubuntu.

Collapse
 
jonosellier profile image
jonosellier

For my own personal development work I ran Elementary OS (Based off Ubuntu) but I work off of Windows. With WSL I get all of the functionality of Linux that I need (like when I checkout BranchA and mean to checkout branchA and Windows thinks it's the same thing but Bitbucket knows better and we got some weird git stuff). I know that Windows isn't the absolute best OS for development, but there are a few tools that make it a great option.

Collapse
 
tacomanick profile image
Nick Shattuck

Mac OS. I enjoy that I can simply focus on developing without having to do too much extra tweaking. I have used Ubuntu in the past, but have since made the full switch to Mac and iOS. I love Linux, I just don't have time for it most days.

Collapse
 
vishnuharidas profile image
Vishnu Haridas

All of our office computers run Ubuntu latest LTS version.

My laptop came Win 10 preinstalled, so I used it for a while until I saw a friend losing all his important work files to a ransomware.

Immediately switched to Linux Mint 20 and never went back to Windows again.