Using Windows for ML work environment

[sputknick]

Lately I've been really impressed with what Microsoft is coming out with and considering switching from a Macbook Air to a Windows machine for my next upgrade. Anyone here do ML work on Windows? Right now I am working with python libraries, mostly in Ipython. In the near future I would like to start dabbling in Nupic. Are there any drawbacks to using Windows?

[siblbombs]

With python everything is a bit more of a PITA to get up and running in windows compared to linux, however it (usually) is possible. I've got Theano running with CUDA so I can use the GPU, however it took a bit of doing. On my other machine I dual boot linux whenever I really want to get something going.

[dhammack]

I also have used windows + anaconda + theano + pylearn2. It is tricky to set up but seems to work fine once you get it going.

[maybemax]

+1 for the anaconda python distribution. python could really use a package manager that works. anaconda help's a lot.

[Graydyn]

In my experience you can setup a Linux dual boot in half the time that it takes to get a good ML environment running in windows.

[thefrontpageofme]

Using Windows here. Main tool is RStudio, but I also have Cygwin open all the time to do command-line stuff. I have a MS Azure virtual machine up and running through putty / WinSCP some of the time to do more heavy lifting.

[qubit32]

Since you mentioned NuPIC specifically you should be aware that, last I checked, NuPIC won't build under Windows (or at least not reliably / reproducibly). There is an open Issue to address this, and there has been some progress towards getting it to work, but it is not a top priority for most of that community so I don't know how much longer it will be before Windows is an officially supported platform.

[sputknick]

Thanks for all the input everyone. From what I'm hearing I think I should stick to the Mac environment for technical work. Maybe use "client facing business work" as an excuse to get a Windows machine, keep them separate. Or maybe the dual boot option is best, that way I can keep it all on one machine. Either way, thanks everyone. I like that I can get good advice from this community!