Ask HN: What is your Dev OS in 2022? I have been some bad times this year on my dev machines. First was ubuntu 21.04 which was out of date that I have no idea. I tried to update it later manually and it went bad. And another was my centos which use py3.6 as system python and I can not update it because I need new version for some work. These are bad feelings that I got this year. I just want a long live dev OS. what is your opotion? |
Yesyes, it'll cost more upfront, yesyes it has its own quirks, yesyes Apple bad boo hiss etc. etc., but still - to your last point: a long-lived dev OS, combined with nigh-untouchably-good hardware integration (note: integration, not 'the fastest thing nvidia/amd pushed out of the factory last week')?
Get a Mac. M2 Macbook Air is amazing:
1. I saw him at a conference in the mid-2000s using a Mac.
If you want the system packages on your OS to jump up to new versions as time goes by then you want to look at a Rolling Release distributions (e.g. Arch).
Alternatively you can use Debian with either Stable, Testing or Unstable as the source rather than a traditional named version (Note: research this before trying it so you understand the risks that you are taking).
I would love to use a Mac, but I'm wary of Apple's consumer oriented locking down of features. When I worked for some large corps, was issued with Windows laptops - compared to Debian it was a nightmare.
It comes with amethyst (`ame`) as AUR helper pre-installed, which is also in my opinion the best AUR helper out right now (and it's written in Rust!).
Automatic BTRFS snapshots before package upgrades have saved my butt once already and I couldn't live without them.
100% recommended
Crystal Linux did catch my attention :D
Also I love Debian 11. Thinking to install KDE with it but I dont have time...
I don't miss Mac at all.
My i3wm config has survived over a decade and has provided a consistent UI/UX across various distros. Fedora is stable across version upgrades and stays out of the way, just like i3 does.
Although I do use it on my laptop, I wouldn't consider WSL stable. If the boot loader or anything involved with the boot process goes kaput, there is nothing you can do but delete it and reinstall. There isn't even a rescue mode, and you can't just fiddle with the partition tables. At least on a physical Linux partition, you should still be able to mount the drive and get to your data, and you have a gazillion rescue options.
--export
--import
options available to you for your WSL instances. You can get your configuration just so, then export it to a tarball that you can use for a baseline for later, that you can import it later.
Or you can use Store apps to handle that operation for you. I'm thinking of the subscription-based app called "Raft WSL" that handles that for you.
"…I wouldn't consider WSL stable." - It's not perfect, but it's sufficient to get me off of being a Mac user for 15+ years. Other than the polish of iTerm2, it gave me everything I had on Mac, without all the Mac-isms that I didn't like.
Windows Terminal has proven to work very well for my dev-on-Windows needs.
One of the BIGGEST factors in making this setup my choice is that Microsoft actually works on stuff, AND listens to their customers.
Do you get everything you want? Certainly not.
Do you get feedback when you report stuff? Very often, yes. Even if it's just to say "Yep, we know about this, we're working on it."
Where, when you'd report a bug to Apple - you get nothing. Ever.
Microsoft actually seems to CARE about making theirs the premier dev platform, where Apple only seems to care about new shiny, gives lip service to open source, and gives no responses to feedback.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Feels good, feels right.
For my paid job doing node and python, windows 10. But I wish it was debian.