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Discussion on: Intro to Linux for New Developers

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zyzmoz profile image
Daniel Cunha (he/him)

For example, Mac OS has a better performance when it comes to graphics. Moreover, most of the best graphics softwares aren't available on Linux.

It is also important to say that Linux, in general, isn't as easy to set up as Mac/ Windows, hence it means that it costs time to get ready to code. However, it depends on which stack you're working with. Most javascript stacks are pretty much ok on Linux.

(I do think Linux is great, but I've never seen a real use-case where its superiority was proven).

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ghost profile image
Ghost

It all depends on what you expect of your OS, I don't buy that "best OS" oversimplification, I used MS OS from DOS 6.0 to Win XP exclusively and on and off Win7 after that. I was kinda happy with Win3.1, 95, 98 and XP but when I started using Linux my whole world opened for me, I started seeing and getting interested in thing I didn't even knew I could do or know; I got interested in programming, my rig turn from an appliance to my system. If a computer is just a device that runs X program for you, then just use the OS that better support said program. To me, if you want to learn, really learn about computers, if you really want to make your system yours, not talking about changing fonts or GUI colors, but really have complete control over your entire system, there is no other choice but Linux (or some BSD for that matter), because of the simple fact that the other OS are built from the ground up to hide things from you, to "translate" standard technical lingo to make it "user friendly" for most people and most people doesn't care about learning that stuff.

My workflow is not possible in other OS, not even close, to me working in Windows is really painful and I don't see anything helpful to me in MacOS. My system is perfectly fit for my needs and I can have my perfect setup in about 60min and that installation will stay as perfect as today for years, I reboot my machine once a month and works flawlessly being a 7+ years old HW when I see other OS lag in much modern machines doing much less.

Productivity wise, to me is being able to handle my 3/5 active projects without closing anything, Firefox with almost 100 tabs open, 15+ terminals, 8 text editors open; a couple of videos on queue while working on and off with Inkscape (nothing too fancy), Gimp and Kicad; working on Rust: testing, compiling; running Python tests and that's the base line. On top of all that short complilations of C for microcontrollers, some music on the background, installing SW, reading a couple of PDFs, spreadsheets work, etc. And all that ofte at the same time, in a 7+ years i5 laptop with 8GB in RAM spread in 3 displays with 20 workspaces. And that laptop cost me about 150USD about 3 years ago. I can't do even half of that in other OS. And as a Cherry on top I use i3, find something like that on Windows or MacOS, good luck.

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zyzmoz profile image
Daniel Cunha (he/him)

I see... In your case, I think it is reasonable using Linux. Also, it is a matter of figure out your necessities as you said. Although, in most cases, I think people choose Linux by choice and not by productivity. For example, Photoshop is way more productive than Gimp, but when it comes to code it is pretty much the same depending on the language.