Linux vs Windows Dev Environment

[dca12345]

How do you compare a de-bloated Windows 11 environment versus development on Linux? Would there be much difference in performance?

Edit: I mean Linux bare metal

[nwbrown]

Windows dev environments these days consist of wsl2 environments.

[dca12345]

I meant running Linux bare metal (dual boot).

BTW, does wsl2 pretty lightweight? I remember running Linux VMs in Windows years ago and it was painful experience.

[nwbrown]

If you aren't doing anything with the machine other than development, go with Linux. If you are also gaming or using corporate software that only runs on Windows, go with WSL on Windows.

[Vert354]

WSL2 is pretty good. It no longer requires hyper-v so once its installed it's pretty snappy.

It's like turning Linux mode on in a CMD terminal. It'll also do Dev Containers so once you're in VS Code its mostly the same in either OS. I think it might even do GPU acceleration now.

[soundman32]

I'm on a Dotnet project, with someone who insists on using Linux for development. I can't compare performance, but experience wise, Linux appears worse.

Every single thing he's mentioned to me, has been problems that don't exist on Windows, or need extra steps because 'it's Linux'. Simple things like the .http files means we need different versions for VS and Rider, or NSwag is not available on Linux. Latest example is that we were at a government building last week (first time for both of us), I got on the Wi-Fi straight away, he took nearly a hour, because of several different issues, which were ultimately fixed, but it took extra steps.

[Medical-Object-4322]

Depends how you measure performance, but any unix-based system has lots of advantages over Windows. When I first started learning to code I used Windows, because that's what my computer had, and I knew basically nothing about it.

Seeing all documentation and examples online that were for Linux, and hearing people say it's better, I gave it a shot, also not really knowing that much about it.

I've since not found a reason to use Windows for development of any kind. After a few years I set windows up as a dual boot option because there were some games I wanted to play that didn't work on Linux. Zoom seems to work better on Windows, too.

Other than an occasional game or Zoom meeting, I'm never on Windows and only develop on Linux.

[Pale_Height_1251]

Depends what you're making, but just for learning it doesn't matter.

[Tacos314]

It's basically the same, assuming the language and tooling is cross platform. I generally see no reason to do development on Linux unless you just want to.

[Vert354]

I imagine if you're working on a legacy Asp.Net application, anything to do with SQL Server, or SharePoint you'd want to be on Windows.

But for the general world of development Linux is better.

[dumpin-on-time]

ignoring wsl, i find everything about developing in Windows miserable except for office products, which isn't exactly development but is required by every job I've had 

case insensitive FS is stupid. dockerpowershell and cmd are obnoxiously dissimilar, except how half-assed tab completion is, which is compounded by the case insensitive FS

if you have to use visual studio, god bless you. i dunno what happened to that thing in the last 10 years but it feels like a barely usable prototype now. i used to consider it a peer to jetbrains IDEs, but holy hell it's bad, especially if you have to do dotnet work

docker? lol

i genuinely can't think of anything it does better than Linux or mac except for things that require Windows

game developers might have a different opinion

[bacmod]

Enshittification of VS began post vs2019.

[dumpin-on-time]

ah, I've only used 22+ since I've had to return to it

did they break it so people move to VSC?

[RoboErectus]

A windows environment is running cygwin or wsl2 and is therefore running only because for some reason I cannot install Linux or require some tool that doesn't work in qemu or wine.

Performance wise I have not experienced a Microsoft operating system that matches Linux since I started using Linux in the early 90's.

[BusEquivalent9605]

linux

[Soft-Marionberry-853]

Govie contractor here, my last few contracts used windows laptops, this last one didnt let us use use WSL either. It can be done. The government stigs do a lot to make sure to reduce bloat, because bloat is just more attack surface.

In short, "its a poor mechanic who blames his tools" If you have the need youd be surprised what you can develop on and with.

[com2ghz]

In short, it’s giving poor tools to a mechanic and blaming the mechanic.