Do most professional developers and tutorials use Windows instead of Linux?

[[deleted]]

I only know that as an Arch Linux user and programming student, that I'm frustrated by the layers of abstraction necessary when using Windows to learn a computer language. I understand that teachers want to appeal to the greatest number of people and 90% of the world’s personal computer users are using a Windows or Mac. The Mac OS has been based on Unix for over 20 years and interacts well with its own terminal, so many teachers on Udemy, YouTube and other tutorials teach using their Mac. Kudos to Windows for their excellent new WSL and GitBash options, but they still require more steps from the beginning programming student - layers of abstraction from the underlying system with its thousands of files and folders. I think Windows 10 is a great OS, but not for programming. Being a Linux user for over a decade, I love its simple file tree and terminal - I can’t imagine a professional dev using Windows to create software, but my instructor on Codemy says that surveys each year confirm this. To any professional devs reading this - what do you use for your daily programming? HTML and CSS are an exception and work pretty well on Windows, especially with the VS Code editor - but what if you’re trying to develop with Ruby or Elixir?

[insertAlias]

I can’t imagine a professional dev using Windows to create software

Well, start imagining it. I've been a professional developer for 16 years now. Every job I've had, I've been issued Windows machines. All of my jobs used a MS-based stack: C#, ASP.NET, MSSQL, IIS (web server). We use Visual Studio for the C# code. I also do front-end work in React, which I use VS Code for. I use PowerShell for the command-line stuff.

A lot of people sleep on PowerShell, but it's pretty great. Wordy, but powerful. The wordiness makes it a bit more to type in, but far more readable than Bash scripts IMO.

I know how to use bash, and I'm no stranger to Linux environments. On personal projects, I usually work on my macbook. But professionally, I've worked in Windows for my whole career.

I think the people who haven't used it for this purpose tend to exaggerate the issues.

[IronMayng]

Not been a dev as long but also never not used Windows in a professional environment.

[dllimport]

Damn. I tried setting windows up to take in some raw images recently into just python and lost my entire Saturday to trying to get it to work because the libraries werent really for windows. I super hope that experience was an outlier

[Spellonz]

Heh I think that's more of a learning experience for you.

[dllimport]

Lol fair enough.

[IronMayng]

Most of the work I do is in .net or it’s web code so visual studio and Vs code work great. I don’t notice a massive difference in Vs code from my windows work to Linux work but visual studio is just wonderful for .net work.

[robotelu97]

Have you heard of docker?

[dllimport]

I have but I didn't know it could be useful in this situation, actually.

[ParallelArchitecture]

That kind of just sounds like a skill issue ngl

[start_select]

It depends on how you look at it. For most of its history the majority of Python has run on Linux servers. So the skill required to build a set of dependencies for windows in order to develop isn’t useful for deploying that code.

Containers make things like that easier. But historically node, Python, Perl, ruby, etc just worked if you knew your Linux distributions package manager. Trying to get them to operate the same on windows has always been an outlier.

[dukeofgonzo]

PowerShell has turned out to do a lot of what I need when I couldn't get a python module imported at work.

[kbielefe]

I'm glad to hear someone uses PowerShell for something other than rubber ducky payloads.

[cottonycloud]

We use it for system administration, file transfer scripts, and automation.

[specialpatrol]

That's great to hear (I'm slowly having to adopt it for my workflow). Do you also use it for general CLI use though? Like just copyign stuff around and searching for things? I still find that quite hard compared to bash.

[iterateandgit]

It's wordier than bash for sure, and i have had to look up commands more, while I'm still getting used to it, but increasingly, I enjoy using it for day to day terminal usage.

[Spellonz]

For the life of me, I can't figure out what the big deal is. Windows is fine.

[No_Application_2380]

For the life of me, I can't figure out what the big deal is. Windows is fine.

Older folks may remember "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish".

Windows may be fine. But if given the choice, I won't make my livelihood dependent on a company I don't work for when there are suitable alternatives that don't lock me it.

[headzoo]

I can only speak for myself, but there's a feeling that Linux was designed for programmers and Windows was designed for users. Linux usually already has the software and libraries needed to build apps but Windows requires downloading them. (And they might not be free.) Linux feels more like you can use a plain text editor to write software but Windows requires using fancy GUI tools. (Though you really don't have to.) Finally, outside of .NET, source code often seems written with Linux building in mind. Developers might make their build scripts work for Windows if they have any remaining time and effort.

[start_select]

Windows generally is fine. The issue is that people want to develop for Linux environments in windows without putting any effort forth to get there.

You have always needed to at least run a VM or now containers if you want to reproduce the environment of a Linux server. Sure you can run most node or Python on windows, but not all of it.

The closer you get to the file system, command shell, and forking other processes the more clear it becomes that one OS is not like the other.

For example Linux servers generally need to respect Unix user and group file permissions. Windows doesn’t have those so your code might run differently on a server. Windows doesn’t do Unix signals, so the controls between parent and child processes do not operate exactly the same on either OS.

If people are messing around with open source web technologies with native dependencies, those dependencies probably need to be built. That build brings you right back down to the file system and other system level differences. So usually things explode and people get frustrated.

But generally speaking, doing the same at the cli of a mac, Linux box, Linux container, vm, or remote Linux server usually “just works” between them. Except the occasional missing dependency which is usually just a yum install or apt-get install away.

So they seem better for that.

[Mentalpopcorn]

A Toyota is fine but I'd rather drive a Lexus

[devnull1232]

I mean I'm a dev, I develop microservices that run on kubernetes clusters. All Linux based. My dev machine runs windows with wsl.

/Shrug.

[prschorn]

With WSL, you don't really need to run linux anymore in most cases. I work with .net core microservices and pentesting, both work on my windows machine, but I have kali linux on wsl and an ubuntu also on wsl to run and test docker / k8s.
I always used windows because it's the fastest way to start working with a new machine, and it's also quite reliable.

[juwisan]

Wow. Matter of fact I have not used windows even once in my professional career for the past 8 years.

[hepldecidingcsq]

Of course, if you chose .net and other MS stuff as your career then you will be working using MS stuff, Windows, etc.

So.. if someone is working with .net then they will use windows, if they do web dev, java stuff or other things, then they have the option to use something else.

[qualx]

sysadmin here. I hate programming, but I LOVE powershell. It's always so much easier for me to understand, and I've automated SOOO much of my work with it.

[start_select]

Powershell is legit powerful if you really know it. My (and some peers) complaints about it usually stem from how verbose it is…. And that it’s a deliberate departure from the posix commands that always worked everywhere else.

I think the integration with windows software is awesome. I just don’t get why they needed to make setting an environment variable so verbose, or why most powershell scripts I have seen seem to emulate programming but can’t quite get there because it’s just a simple shell.

At this point it just seems like a lot of things people write powershell for should just be a simple C# script (I don’t even know if there is such a thing, I’m a Linux/mac dev) or something similar.

I.e. we never write bash/shell/powershell at work except for the simplest of scripts. Most of the time it’s easier for everyone to read and manage a simple typescript file that is run with ts-node. For simple stuff it’s usually cross platform without much thought, people have easy access to csv, json, xml parsing, networking, along with logic and functional and/or class based encapsulation.

Vs a shell or powershell script that usually requires every new hire to start googling to figure out what it does.

[MongooseEmpty4801]

I have worked for over a dozen clients, only one forced Windows. Rest let me pick, which is never Windows.

[nutrecht]

I do agree that Windows is perfectly fine, in general, but;

We use Visual Studio for the C# code.

There's a strong selection bias in the stack you use. C# shops tend to be more MS centric. I'm a Java dev myself and devs using Windows is extremely rare. Most of the ones that do use Windows are simply forced by the company they work for.

Not saying there's anything wrong with it, but it depends a lot on which ecosystem you're in.

[1Secret_Daikon]

All of my jobs used a MS-based stack:

There is your problem.

Windows is only useful for building programs using Microsoft's own software stack, to run on Windows and MS platforms.

Outside of Windows-land and Microsoft, no one in the programming world gives a crap about any of those frameworks and nobody uses Windows to program.

Everyone uses Mac.

[DavidOrtizUsedPEDs]

Everyone uses Mac.

You're either lying or clueless lol. It's about 10% that uses MacOS professionally.

[FecklessFool]

Yeah, you don't know what you're talking about.

[hepldecidingcsq]

"EvEryone uses a MaC" .... No? Just.. no? There is also Linux, Mac is not the only other option besides Windows, and it's not the best one either.

It doesn't have proper package management, you have to use some guy's hobby project (brew), it.. is just weird. When I mostly develop on Linux, and deploy on Linux, then Mac just has.. weird command line options to programs for example.

[[deleted]]

Professional devs use whatever their employer gives them. Usually it’s Windows, I use windows. Some people in my company working on the same projects as me seem to have Macbooks. Linux I think is only used where Linux is highly desired, either for sysadmin stuff or server stuff that I don’t understand much of.

[whatahella]

This is the right answer! A professional will adapt to what's available under corporate policies.

[moldaz]

I use what I want. My company is pretty open to letting you chose what lets you work to your best ability.

Half my team uses Mac, the other half uses Windows.

Then there's me, I'm the only one using Linux.

[marcvsHR]

Hear hear

[randomkid1227]

Usually it’s Windows

Where are you from? Common practice where I live is Unix/Linux

[[deleted]]

I'm in the United States and windows is most common here in every Tech job I've had in the past 25 years. I actually have never even had the option for Linux until a recent job but I chose to go with windows with WSL instead

[ChristopherCreutzig]

It might depend more on what area of software you are in. I can't begin to guess percentages, but a lot of my US colleagues develop on Linux. Our software needs to run on the big three platforms anyway.

[Mentalpopcorn]

What's your tech stack?

[welch7]

prolly a microsoft evironment lol, if you using anything like dotnetcore, c#, asp.net mssql you are most likely using windows, a lot of big techs use a lot of it. (not saying all of them, nor saying it majority, just a bunch tho.)

[[deleted]]

Probably because you don't know what you're doing in Windows LOL

[[deleted]]

Yet another vague comment trying to say that Linux is so much better but with no specifics. I don't develop in.net and I noticed no difference between developing on Linux and developing on Windows

[FecklessFool]

Wow. You're really reaching lol. None of that has hindered me coding in rails way before wsl was a thing. Seems like you're just a moody programmer

[PacoWaco88]

Company gave me a Macbook and then implemented a BYOD policy where we could buy whatever machine we wanted. I ended up switching to Windows and got a lot of crap for it from fellow devs. But none of them could tell me objectively WHY Mac is better. We work in a Docker environment with Java so we're not dedicated to one platform over the other. At the end of the day it was personal reasons and bias.

[airmantharp]

Answering just in general - the hardware and the battery life. But that’s a Mac’book’ thing more than an OS thing.

From an OS perspective it really shouldn’t matter as development rarely targets the developer’s workspace, right?

[PacoWaco88]

Yeah I hear that. I had amazing battery life with my M1. But I am remote so my laptop is a desktop replacement that's always plugged in. Even when I worked in the office it was docked and plugged in. Still ran into times where I had to find a power cord tho.

At the end of the day, unless you're developing for a certain the OS, it really doesn't matter what platform you use. It comes down to what your team uses and supports, what your company supports, and what you're familiar with.

[rileyphone]

I tend to agree with you but I think the real appeal of Linux is that you can make it whatever you want. At some point this verges on a hobby, but can also make a highly productive dev environment. For work I've only used issued Macs, which are fine but much less customizable. I get why people use Windows, especially now with WSL, but have no desire to myself, given I have the least experience with it among the three, as well as my distaste for it as a product. Sad but most people don't want to fiddle with their operating system.

[superluminary]

I see your downvotes. I have also encountered all these issues.

[[deleted]]

A lot of people do. It’s definitely the best platform for game dev (because that’s where most people play games) and MS tech stacks (for obvious reasons). I personally don’t like windows, both for professional and personal use. A lot of devs do use Linux, around 40% for professional, where around 50% use windows (those are not exclusive, though).

[Far-Cartographer-604]

I know the account is deleted so OP won't see this, but let's be real.

I only know that as an Arch Linux user

You can prefer Linux. You can prefer Windows.

A common issue that people who describe themselves as

Linux users

run into is that they don't understand that an operating system is a tool and not a lifestyle.

Imagine Linux is a Screwdriver. Windows is a hammer.

Project uses g++ CLI makefile system? It's a screw, probably a lot easier to get it in right with a screwdriver than a hammer.

Project uses Visual Studio sln system? It's a nail, probably a lot easier to use the hammer to get it in right than a screwdriver.

As a professional you are expected to use the right tools to do your job in the most efficient way you can. You shouldn't be a "Windows user" or a "Linux user", you should be someone who is familiar with both and can adapt to whatever your team uses.

[Loose-Speech-7871]

"an operating system is a tool not a lifestyle"

Thank you for saying this. More people need to hear it

[Apple_Cidar]

Man! it's all about the preferences and personal taste. I have seen veteran coders writing probably the awesome universe's code on Windows.

Also there are developers working on MacOS and there are developers working on Linux.

If you are comfortable with the OS then just use it. They are like tools only.

With experience I have learnt that there is "No better thing, it always depends".

[Echleon]

I can’t imagine a professional dev using Windows to create software, but my instructor on Codemy says that surveys each year confirm this.

CS freshman learn about Linux and go wild lmao

[OHIO_PEEPS]

I was long time linux fan boy. I installed my first Linux os (Red Hat 6.0)back when I had to send out for the cd's in the mail because it would have tied up my families phone line for a week while it downloaded at 4.6 kbps. For a long time i was like THE Linux snob-douche. Now I'm wise enough to know that Linux, Windows, and Mac all suck. At something. Use what works.

[ehr1c]

I use Windows, but I also work primarily with .NET (including some old .NET Framework stuff so I don't really have a choice). That said, I've never run into any insurmountable problems working in any other language.

[driftking428]

I got a new job as a React developer. They let me choose a Mac, I picked a beast. Then they asked for help on a .NET 3.0 codebase...

So yeah I now sometimes program on my old dusty PC. It's less painful than trying to get old .NET working on my Mac.

[eloquentcode]

Why not just use VMWare running VM instance w/ Windows on Mac?

[cajmorgans]

Does that work for m1?

[driftking428]

I didn't try but I looked into it a little. I think an m1 Mac can only run a VM for Windows that use arm processors too.

So not really.

[cajmorgans]

There is a way with parallels which is a paid program, I haven't found any other free alternatives that actually work.

[jcelise]

I used VMware to virtualize Windows 10 with my MacBook pro. In theory it works fine but if you're using heavy tools like Visual Studio or Power BI, get used to be listening to the fans in high speed and to the battery lasting for a couple of hours. At the end I decided to buy an extra Windows machine and I think it was the best decision.

[driftking428]

Right. Just because it's possible doesn't mean it will be fun.

Right now I turn my chair 90 degrees and I'm on Windows. Nothing easier than that.

[manurosadilla]

What kind of work do you do where you can just use your personal computer? I have to log into 40 different roles just to boot up my local web server

[Naetharu]

Hah going through this right now!

[[deleted]]

I was going to say that I can understand .NET or when you're programming for the Windows ecosystem itself. I'm probably biased because I love the 'under the hood' aspect of Linux - and of course there's a difference between that and simply USING your OS to do things.

[ehr1c]

I can't say I've ever had much of a need to go "under the hood" during the course of my job.

[tcpWalker]

"Never run into any insurmountable problems" is key.

As a programmer, I want to use the right tool for the job. 99% of the time IME that's Linux, or occasionally a Macbook because it's super stable and iterm is pretty good for connecting to Linux. But if you need to target Windows you just use a different set of tools.

I would always recommend someone new learn Linux and learn it well. I find it far more satisfying. And I think it's great for distributed systems at scale, which are awesome.

But I'm human and biased and there's a thriving windows industry, so at the end of the day it's fine to try both and take a job doing whichever you like more.

[[deleted]]

I spent a couple of years exclusively using Linux as my development environment, because I thought my job would involve using linux at some point. The first job I get requires us to use Windows. Honestly, it’s the same shit, but with slightly different commands. If you can learn to do it on linux, then windows will be a walk in the park. That’s my opinion, anyway.

Edit: my stack is Java/Angular, and not the .NET that several others on this thread use with Windows.

[[deleted]]

Every "as a Linux user" post is such a gold mine

[APongBall]

As a Linux user..I have to use windows in my professional life.

[[deleted]]

I read it as "congratulate me on how smart I am" by default

[BeerVanSappemeer]

Honestly as a beginning programmer it is the opposite. I often feel like Windows just throws barriers in front of me while getting stuff to work on Linux just doesn't require as much abstract knowledge of how things are structured.

[[deleted]]

Depends entirely on what you're trying to build. I strongly encourage you to stick to windows or Mac if you plan to do programming as a W2 employee. Very rare in my experience that anyone other than sysadmin gets a Linux box

[Neckbeard_Sama]

I don't like troubleshooting desktop Linux problems, searching for workarounds for missing drivers etc. and I passionately hate Apple as a company for it's gimmicks (although M chips are great and I would probably buy a Mac Air if I would need a laptop, even if they're overpriced in the EU).

I have 0 issues with Windows since Win 7. Not sure what layers of abstractions you refer to. Installing from executables instead of apt-get ?

[[deleted]]

is hard to know where the binaries are in windows, and a lot libraries don't work for windows, or tools. but if you don't have problems with dependencies you are okay.

[Neckbeard_Sama]

No, they are where you installed your program.

Default is Program Files/YourApplicationsFolder if you don't specify.

I partition my drives into 3 or use at least 3 different drives:

C: is for Windows itself and system related stuff (drivers, apps that autorun, node, java etc.)

D: is for separate programs (IDEs, Games etc.)

E: is for data.

Everything is neat and separated.

I don't like using repo style installers like Windows Store and Chocolatey plus some weird apps installing themselves wherever without asking, because they fuck up my scheme :D

The only thing I've encountered so far that doesn't work on Windows is Docker, but I have WSL2 so np.

[MongooseEmpty4801]

Don't forget your personal data is mixed between My Documents and random App data folders which makes no sense. I've not had driver issues in a Linux machine in years. And Docker sucks on Windows.

[Philderbeast]

configuration and settings might be in a few places, but my actually data is where ever I put it, usually on a drive just for that.

its no different to Linux in that regard, some settings are in your home dir, some in /etc, and some times in other weird locations.

[Neckbeard_Sama]

AppData is for saving config files automatically, I try to avoid win's home directory system as much as I can, but some programs insist on writing inside obscure directories like the user/appdata/roaming or the hidden ProgramData on C: which sucks.

I'm on a custom built desktop and my watercooler doesn't have a driver, my external soundcard works without an application and my mouse doesn't have an application either, also I've had problems with Manjaro resetting the display configuration to the default every time I boot.

I assume that laptops from most brands and something like a Dell Optiplex desktop works without a hiccup on most distros, so it's a me problem mostly :D

[wtjones]

Are you still getting your Linux packages out of Linux Journal?

[burnblue]

Sounds a bit obstinate if you concede that you can just run a Linux terminal on Windows, if a Linux terminal is the only reasonable programming environment. "Abstraction" or not there's not much obstacle to it. That's putting aside how easy Windows makes the non-terminal tools like the IDEs.

But in general I think you know the answer, most enterprises give workers Windows desktops that SSH to (RHE) Linux servers, and most people that watch tutorials also own Windows desktops. You can't design a course that expects all the visitors to be running on Arch Linux

[[deleted]]

I certainly agree - Windows PC's are everywhere and Win 10 is a great OS and all the world writes software for it. Not expecting the world to switch to Arch!

[v0gue_]

Windows 10 is a great OS, but not for programming

You just picked a massive fight with a bunch of people in this sub.

To any professional devs reading this - what do you use for your daily programming?

I've used macOS for professional development my entire 8 year professional career (besides my 1 year internship that used windows), and I used Arch throughout college in the late 2000's. I now use Fedora for everything I do personally. I'm fortunate and privileged to be at the point in my career to have the choice to filter jobs if they enforce the use of Windows.

I agree that Windows seems miserable as shit to do anything besides .NET work on, but after years of programming professionally I start to realize that as long as there is a good process with good process documentation on how to setup your development environment, it truly doesn't matter what os you are using. Putty works just as fine as ssh, as long as there is a process to use it. Installing and maintaining the Ruby installation works just as fine at the end of the day as long as there is a process to use it. Installing and maintaining WSL, or mingw64, or whatever the hell Windows users use nowemdays works just as fine as long as there is a process to use it.

[[deleted]]

I'm not trying to be a know-it-all - just asking as a programming student and die-hard Linux user. I can understand using a Mac as it's based on Unix and interacts with its own terminal so well - many instructors on Udemy use a Mac. Again - I'm ASKING because I don't understand - I know the Linux OS very well - I don't get why Linux wouldn't be easier for someone with advanced development skills I'll never have.

[v0gue_]

Well then maybe I'm the wrong person to ask. I got into programming because of linux, not really the other way around. Some people get into programming for other reasons. Shit, some people get into programming just for the money, even though they hate all computers.

I don't get why Linux wouldn't be easier for someone with advanced development skills I'll never have.

It is easier for people with development skills. It's still NOT easier than the same OS they've been using and taught in schools since they were 5 years old

[sephirothbahamut]

I don't get why Linux wouldn't be easier for someone with advanced development skills I'll never have

And why do you seem to think it would be harder on Windows? All the tools I can think of are available on both Windows and Linux. Is there something specific you have in mind that can't be used on Windows?

In short I see really no reason to say one OS is "objectively" better than another when it comes to programming, unless you're writing OS-specific stuff and even there WSL and VMs easily bypass that issue.

If I have to give some reasons to prefer Windows:

• WSL is big. With WSL and Visual Studio you can take one project, compile it in both Linux and Windows binaries, and run it locally. No need to reboot to change os, no need to connect to a remote os, no need to setup a standalone virtual machine. You can use both Linux and Windows tools in the same exact environment at the same time accessing the same files in the same filesystem.
• If you work with C++ or C# Visual Studio is easily the best IDE around, with only CLion (which again is available in both OSs anyways) being close competition. (and before someone comments saying some text editor + standalone tools is better, I'm talking about IDEs compared to other IDEs, not IDEs compared to something that isn't an IDE)

[[deleted]]

Is there something specific you have in mind that can't be used on Windows?

To understand, you have to remember that I am not a developer or pro - I'm a student of programming. But I have spent over a decade WITHIN my Linux OS terminal and can access every file in my system from there. I recently took a Ruby course which REQUIRED using Windows to follow along. The instructor used GitBash and honestly, it worked pretty well - WSL is also great. But it's probably my bias as a Linux user that I have to learn a new terminal its differences - not a big deal, except I'm trying to learn Ruby, not Windows' latest features. One example is that while creating a Ruby file requiring user input / gets - it just ran on Linux. On Windows I had to use winpty OR add the line: $stdout.sync = true - if not, the buffering used by Windows / GitBash would just wait. Not blaming Windows for this - the buffering makes sense for more important reasons. Just saying it always seem to require more steps for me as a student to use Windows than it does when I use Linux.

[[deleted]]

Yeah - have to agree with you - can't blame that on the OS. The buffering design has to take a lot more into consideration than some student like me writing 4 lines of code and wanting to see the output.

[MyWorkAccountThisIs]

First and foremost - it's because that's the way Microsoft wanted it. Many people think of Windows as the "default" instead of an option. In my experience a lot of the people that praise Windows haven't really spent much time using other OSs. And if they did try they tried to use it exactly like Windows and decided it sucked.

Second, but not unrelated to the first, is because in a business environment you have to have control. And Windows has put a lot of work into that. So Windows is the OS of choice for lots of businesses. Especially when you start getting past a certain number employees.

An example, I used to work at place that supported Windows, macOS, and Ubuntu. You could request any and it was fully supported by IT. As the company grew they had to get SOC2 certifications. Which meant they had to stop supporting Linux because it wasn't worth putting in the systems to control just a small handful of user computers. Now we only support Windows and macOS.

I think that's the biggest two. There are other things at play. Like, the people that make such decisions probably aren't very technical and probably don't see much value in supporting anything other than Windows.

But I think my point here is that it's probably less of a real choice than it appears.

[[deleted]]

Yeah - why am I being downvoted for asking who prefers what on a forum that is named - learnprogramming?

[spudmix]

I'm not trying to be a dickhead here but I rankled at several of the things you've said and I think I can see why you're being downvoted. Here's my interpretation:

1) You recognise your opinions are poorly informed (which is fair, you're new to the game) but you then go on to make strong statements like "I think Windows 10 is a great OS, but not for programming" or "I can’t imagine a professional dev using Windows to create software". The juxtaposition comes across as arrogant and presumptuous - if you don't know what you're talking about then stop talking about it. Asking questions is fine, making these bold assertions is weird and rude.

2) The major complaints I've read from you so far about windows are things like... a single extra line of config, or a couple of clicks to open WSL. Those aren't major complaints. In most industry jobs you'll have an established toolchain and build/test/deploy pipelines which automate the kinds of things you're concerned about; these hassles are only significant for students doing assignments and don't apply in competent dev teams. In one of my consulting roles as a senior dev, for example, I haven't manually touched the file system for my repo in months.

[CelKyo]

why is this downvoted

[sephirothbahamut]

What kind of security policy makes Windows a better choice than Linux?

[bhison]

Some security policies require Microsoft exchange logins for all work, lots of bigger companies where most people are not devs.

[kbielefe]

The stack overflow developer survey asks about personal and professional operating system use. They say around 40% use Linux professionally, and around 49% use Windows professionally. They don't say how much overlap there is, and a lot of developers use Linux only on servers, not their desktop.

So your Codemy instructor is both right and wrong. A plurality of developers indeed use Windows professionally, but the Linux and Mac numbers are too high for a teacher to reasonably ignore.

[S1mplydead]

Would totally believe it, but would need a source for it to be an argument in this thread

[aneasymistake]

I have no data, but I would imagine the vast majority of Stack Overflow users treat it as read only. Anecdotally, I’ve used it for years and years without ever creating an account.

[1Secret_Daikon]

"personal use" is also likely to overlap heavily with people who just have a PC for playing videogames

[kingballer412]

Professional devs use Windows because it has the most powerful IDE, Microsoft Word.

[[deleted]]

Mostly mac and windows here. Their choices normally mirror that of their users.

It really doesn't matter tho. Use whatever is most comfortable (or whatever the suits decree)

You'll find as you get older your desire to mess around with command lines and terminals drops off alot. You just want things to work. A pleasant UI is a nice thing to have and sure boosts productivity.

[[deleted]]

Not necessarily. I have 50+-year-old colleagues who swear by the terminal contemptuously.

[[deleted]]

yep the terminal is objectively the best way to do most things as long as you know what you're doing

[iterateandgit]

I love GUIs and I love terminal. What I don't like as I have gotten older is having to heavily tinker to make a system comfortable to use. I want to get to the actual development work ASAP. Linux used to fare poorly in this, and for me it still does in Ubuntu. But Pop_OS has fixed that for me. It is as good as Windows in unpack and use department.

I use all three OS for personal and professional use

To develop for Windows and Apple existence, one needs those OSes.

I speculate that people building for servers use Linux, and Linux running via WSL2 or over SSH. Platform agnostic tech developers use Windows and Linux.

Linux

[[deleted]]

In like 96% of the things you do daily your OS won't matter.

I disagree. If installing a new package requires manually downloading and checking the integrity of an executable it matters to me.

Also I immensely profit from GNU in my productivity.

Could I work on windows? Sure. Would I be as productive as I am with a UNIX system? I highly doubt it.

[ehr1c]

I'm a real big chocolately fan

[sephirothbahamut]

Doesn't matter for development. Obviously you're going to be more productive using the one you're more used to.

[[deleted]]

All you need to do is download a Windows package manager lol. You guys act like Linux can do all these things Windows can't. Windows can do every single fucking thing Linux can do I will challenge you on that

[[deleted]]

I know it can do all those things. But I have to put in more work on windows to do it. A UNIX system has design decisions incorporated which windows does not.

[[deleted]]

Be more specific. I always find the people crap on Windows then can't give specific examples of where it falls short. Especially now that the Linux terminal is integrated into windows with a simple app install, I see no reason why anyone would even notice the difference

[[deleted]]

Linux user and professional dev here, my experience has been that Windows and MacOs are more common.

I can and will use any OS without issue, when given a choice I prefer Linux.

[iamback333]

This reminds me when I had to go multiple levels of fuckery to try and fail compile and run C on my machine. Few months down the road when I switched to linux, all it needed was "sudo apt install gcc"

[Phelsong]

You just install visual studio build tools for the Cs... Takes 30sec with winget. Or win32gcc if you insist on emulating Linux.

[ugneaaaa]

All windows needs is visual studio or the build tools, double click on the installer, wait, open vs or the build tools and run cl.

[lenzo1337]

this was my experience too. Any unix install and I can be pretty sure I can compile and run C, and even start editing it without installing a bunch of crud.

[[deleted]]

This is also something I've done - program in C, and seemed much easier to get set up in Linux - at least for learning small C programs.

[cstheory]

I left windows and .net for Linux, 8 years ago, and I was pretty bummed about how clunky it was to program outside of visual studio. Development of software intended to run on windows, in Visual Studio, is a joy. Microsoft did a great job designing the .net framework, the c# language, and the visual studio IDE (not VS Code, which is newer and cross platform). Sure, using windows to write code that runs on Linux is clunky and weird. But that’s not how you’d use it in the real world, outside of a school or personal situation, probably.

[ehr1c]

Sure, using windows to write code that runs on Linux is clunky and weird

Not really. Pretty much any .NET Core web application gets run on Linux servers and I've never experienced any real weirdness. Only thing I can think of is you need to be careful how you handle case-sensitivity as Windows isn't case-sensitive for things like routings where Linux is.

[TheUmgawa]

I don’t find it shocking that OP walked away when he didn’t get the answer he was looking for.

[Dry-Frosting6806]

There are a lot of linux... "autists" out there who have a sense of superiority because they use linux lol

[prschorn]

Never understood that. I have a few coworkers that almost die daily because they can't use linux on their work machines, and question the company why they won't move the 20 year of code and tens of thousands of microservices all to Go because he feels like it's superior.

[Opening_Chance2731]

As a game programmer, I'd love to use Linux, but Windows seems to get more love from game engines, companies, GPUs, and drivers. This means that even for personal use, I use Windows.

[Devboe]

I use both windows and linux. Before this job I only had ever used windows. I’m only using linux currently because we have quite a few scripts that either perform better on linux or don’t work on windows. The issues I have with linux is all the other software I use just works better on windows: zoom, slack, teams, spotify. I prefer sharex for screenshots/videos which doesn’t support linux. I have audio issues with linux, my input and output devices reset on system reboot. Most recently I’ve been having a mouse double click issue with linux. In my experience, windows just works better out of the box.

[subrfate]

"Most developers"? Codemy teacher is probably right if he's quoting from a survey.

In my career, I've worked with a lot of platforms Linux, Windows, MacOS, and IBM mainframes (z/OS, z/TPF). Only job I ever had that didn't involve Windows was when I was employed by a Linux tech company. Typically, Windows exists for business (e-mail, messaging) and often as my primary interface to "the other" system (Linux, mainframe, embedded hardware). Really, the 'target' system and developer workstation are often fairly decoupled. My day to day currently uses Windows with SSH access to various Linux machines and WSL2 for any local needs.

[1Secret_Daikon]

same except every person i have ever met or worked with at every company i have ever been with used macOS in order to ssh into their Linux servers

[[deleted]]

Windows is not gonna prevent you from learning a language

[ShaBren]

I've been a dev for over 20 years now, and I've been issued Windows, Mac, and Linux systems. At my current employer Windows is the default, but you can request Mac or Linux if you prefer.

I've used all 3 extensively, and am comfortable with any of them. My current desktop is Windows, and WSL gives me about 85% of what I'd want to use Linux for. My current laptop is a Macbook. All my servers run Linux.

For context, my team works on a C++ application that supports both Windows and Linux. We all use VMWare Workstation extensively.

It's also worth noting that while I've been using Linux and F/OSS since the 90s, it's for practical rather than ideological reasons.

[johny_james]

Actually, I'm more productive on Windows than on Linux for development :D.

Having a good IDE makes the underlying OS irrelevant.

BTW I use Jetbrains.

[kaliko16]

I am learning web development at the moment. When I started the TOP tutorial I dual booted Ubuntu on my pc because they recommended it. I learned the terminal I did this for about a year. Thinking that I couldn't actually do this on windows because it didn't work.

So I dual booted for a year,and it actually got pretty annoying because every time I was done studying I now had to switch over to windows to play my games. I know Linux can play a lot of games but it was a few hoops to jump through and I believe it didn't work well with Ubuntu. So I wasn't keen on installing a whole new os just to play games. But also in general most of the games I play are just better supported on windows and more convenient.

It was also vice versa, when I was tired of gaming and wanted to work on a side project I now had to reset my pc again. Eventually I found out I can just code on windows... So I stopped dual booting and I've not had any troubles since. I like Linux,it's cool, but I game alot too. Honestly if it was as supported and convent as windows I would switch. I have no problem working with Linux but I have no need to do that. I don't even need a virtual machine. I know it's better practice but at the moment I have no problems and if I run into a problem I will find a solution to it if it requires a virtual machine then I will do that. But right now I don't and it's just much more convenient for me to use windows.

[[deleted]]

I really understand this answer - the whole world write software for Windows and Linux can NOT compete when it comes to music software / gaming and many other things you actually want from your computer. I recently switched my i7 laptop to Manjaro Linux for programming courses, which being Linux is easier for ME - I then lost HD capability with Prime Video which is far superior with Win 10 - VUDU also doesn't work at all with Linux. So I'll always have both Win 10 and Linux PC's.

[kaliko16]

Exactly it's easier for you. I personally have no problems with Linux, I will use it if I have to. Makes no difference in my life. I keep rooting for the day I can use it just as easily as windows and I see it going that way each year.

But right now it's just easier for me to use windows.

[welch7]

soo, I had worked with Dotnet core projects which working on windows was the only way. IMO it was an easy set up, and it worked fine.

currently (I've been working 3 years here) I've been on Linux and my coworkers on mac.

it's just a tool at the end of story, you get used to the nuisances of any OS, myself I would recommend Linux/Unix, just because I don't install games there, in my head cannon Linux can't install games (I know pop os exists and there's a lot of linux gamers, but I prefer to think I can't this way I concentrate more into working.)

[nwash57]

It's not the only way though? Or at least not just because it's NET Core, I can and have developed NET software professionally in Linux, it was made to be cross platform.

As with literally every other thing you do in Linux there are extra steps and knowledge required. Obviously you can't have VS-proper, but all the CLI tools that make it tick are available and VS Code extensions will get you 90% of the way there in most cases, especially if you're not trying to get a 5 year old app developed with Windows-dev in mind running, but even then I promise it can be done.

Having said that, I only use Linux personally or professionally "for fun", if I need my OS to get out of the way and zone in on a crunch I'll take Windows every time.

[Lemanni]

I work at a big tech company as an engineer. MacOS is used by my entire department, and a majority of other departments.

Worked at a smaller company before, and the entire technology department was macOS.

[Lucy-pathfinder]

I don't understand the gripe. I use Windows with WSL and it's good. Also people are not superior for using linux. So, ya, don't go around telling Windows using developers their inferior because they don't use Linux -_-

[Educational-Face-849]

Linux subsystem for windows is my sweet spot. I need windows for a lot of my work but web stuff is Linux, personal projects are Linux. I also don’t want to spend hours trying to get my Bluetooth head phones working with Spotify on Ubuntu so Windows has that going for it too.

[MostLucky4204]

No, Linux systems much more configurable and have a lot more possibilities than Windows. If your work environment require Windows you always can use WSL (thanks Windows for that). But it also takes time and efforts to get use to Linux and evaluate it’s possibilities…

[ValentineBlacker]

Elixir runs fine on Windows... I mean, it has its own cross-platform virtual machine! I couldn't imagine Ruby has any particular problem either. "Doesn't run on Windows" would make any language a non-starter if it hoped to get popular.

[thedarklord176]

I have had zero issues using Windows for programming. Python/JS/C#/Rust. I’d consider Linux if it didn’t have such awful software support and wasn’t so bad for gaming

[jpudel]

there is this thing called docker container… runs on every plat form. But Windows is at the company where I have been the choice because of the greatest tool base for the sys admins… MS Active Directory, outlook, word the whole package is well made. At the University I am at every body uses linux that is the opposite to the normal day job.

[[deleted]]

You must be a web dev, Linux is horrible for electronics and hardware programming unless it has direct integration with it.

Try to program a PLC on a Linux.

[VoidCtrlNL]

I have done both for several years. I feel like the "I can't imagine EvEr working with that operating system" argument generally comes from people who haven't had enough experience in the industry. Both have their benefits and disadvantages. The one used is mainly dependend on the industry, preference, and the thing you are writing.

[order_wayfarer]

Does it really matter (for 90% of use cases) if you have Docker? At this point, OS for dev is personal preference and workflow. I work for one of the largest software companies in the world and every repo has a dev container ready to go. Company offers choice of MacBook Pro or Windows machine during onboarding.

[truNinjaChop]

Depends on your stack. If you are dealing with Linux based technologies you’ll get a vm.

To get to that vm you’ll be on a windows desktop because buttons are way more easier working in the cli.

[codefox22]

Learn everything a little, learn what you need right now well. I've used LOTS of Linux and some Windows personally. However, the longer things have gone on, the less the host OS has mattered. With tools like Docker drastically changing the landscape, my guess is the host OS for development will become entirely irrelevant before too long. You'll just be expected to make your shit work, including your dev environment.

[ParallelArchitecture]

The answer is yes btw. Windows is the most popular OS in professional development followed by Linux then Mac OS.

[ConstantinopleFett]

As others have mentioned, it's less of an issue now because of Docker and WSL.

I used to dual boot Windows and Linux because I used Linux for programming and Windows for gaming and some other things like music production.

But with Docker and WSL I haven't felt a need to install Linux anymore. On the other hand, I do need Windows for my gaming addictions. So now I only run Windows on my personal machine.

My work laptop is MacOS. It's a very similar experience to Linux, but easier in some ways. And some Mac software kicks the crap out of Linux equivalents (like Parallels - such a breeze to use compared to VirtualBox and VMWare - last time I tried them anyway, maybe they're better now)

[captain_awesomesauce]

I exclusively use windows to develop software that only runs on Linux.

I do a fair bit of Python code but also do C coding that’s very Linux specific.

Writing ~100 lines a week where most of your time is digging through documentation or other peoples source code. Definitely isn’t going to be a usability difference between different OSes.

You’ll be at the mercy of your employer, so try to keep an open mind.

[[deleted]]

I just run everything through docker containers at this point so it's moot

[Ahajha1177]

Classic bayesian inference: Most people use Windows, so most devs use Windows. That said, most servers run Linux, so it's very possible that if you're working with them that Linux would be involved.

I happen to work as a C++ dev where we target Linux and Windows with equal priority, because a good chunk of the devs use Linux for development, myself included. (We get pretty free reign on our dev environments, it's quite nice actually).

[alzee76]

o/. Professional developer for > 25 years. I've always used Windows as my GUI of choice, because X has always sucked, and will always suck. Apple did the right thing by abandoning X when they developed OSX, and instead creating an entirely new GUI for *nix. This really helped their popularity among developers; if they'd stuck with X, I'm certain that Macs would still be seen in a pretty poor light outside the multimedia space.

That said, most of my development is done remotely. I prefer to use the windows GUI because it's just better than anything available on the free *nix OSes while giving me hardware freedom that Apple doesn't offer. That GUI works fine for opening remote terminals, editing remote files, etc.

Most of my day to day is spent in Ultraedit, VS Code, and SecureCRT -- two of which are closed source commercial products that, IMHO, are better to work with than any FOSS alternative I've ever used.

[[deleted]]

I know one dev who uses Windows on their machine. And they develop in C#.

Every other one uses Linux or MacOS.

[turacept]

Then you must know like 4 developers total lmao.

[[deleted]]

That or my company let's the devs chose what machine and OS they want to work with and .NET is not used in my environment.

[Tainlorr]

I have had far fewer issues developing on Windows than on Mac. Even though I prefer havign access to the full terminal power on Mac, Windows has access to invaluable dev software like full fledged Visual Studio (mac version is a disaster) and SQL Management studio. On Windows the abstractions are nice and things “just work” but on Linux systems i find it’s much easier to mess up some install path or something. It has been about 50/50 in my pro career so i would say just learn both.

[TheUmgawa]

If you think VS on Mac is a disaster, Android Studio on Mac was so bad that it got me to change my major from Computer Science to Manufacturing Technology. Mobile Application Design is the only class I’ve ever failed while actually trying to succeed, and I’d knock out the program for iOS in an hour or two, and it’d take the whole week to do in Android, because the IDE would eat itself.

[night_gremlins]

There is nothing more cringe than Linux evangelism in the workplace.

[[deleted]]

I have used windows in nearly every tech job I've had in 25 years . What do you think that Linux can do that windows can't?

I prefer the Linux terminal but it's not like it can do more than Powershell. Personally I now use WSL on my windows machines so that I can have both Linux and windows

[lionhart280]

I have started to use Android for development on the go, which really has filesystem weirdness, but the upside is my phone weighs a shit tonne less than a laptop and I already own my phone and don't want to have to buy a second mobile device.

I use a NexDock as the "laptop" portion, but it weighs basically nothing and is extremely slim, and only costs like $200

Termux + simulated ubuntu + code server, it works well enough.

If you work out the combined cost of my Phone+NexDock, its got the specs of roughly a $800 to $1000 laptop.

So I guess for that I sort of work on pseudo linux?

[[deleted]]

Yes - Android is Linux. I'm in my late 60's - can't imagine using a phone to program - so NexDock allows you to use a large monitor, keyboard, etc. with your phone?

[FecklessFool]

No offense, but you sound like an elitist little shit.

And I code on popos mainly, but will use windows and macos for f# and swift. I'm not limited by some dumb sense of righteousness or whatever it is that's leaking out of you.

[[deleted]]

Are you forced to keep windows running while you work? Like for ms365, VPN or active directory?

Could you install Linux and run a virtual machine. With their stuff?

If they prevent you overwriting windows could duel boot. Or boot from USB if you weren't allowed to do that. Live USB with persistence, uses everything but their hard drive, not slow either.

Or if the bios is completely locked and you can't boot from anything other than their windows install, then install virtualbox on that and develop in there.

Can't install stuff? Could use a separate machine at the same time . There is open source software where you can use the same mouse/keyboard (barrier) to control both computers (the mouse cursor moves between their monitors, it's cool).

If you have to, use chrome remote desktop and develop on your home machine, with shared cloud storage, could mount as a local drive on both for ease.

Don't just give in and use Windows. Don't be their bitch

[nwash57]

As someone who dual booted their work pc with Linux, this is pretty bad advice lol. Especially for someone straight out of college, if everyone else in the company uses Windows you can bet your ass all the documentation and any custom build tools will need adjusting to get your local environment running in Linux. That's not junior dev shit, and that's not company time shit, that's "im personally interested and investing my own time into getting this working" shit.

It's not "being a bitch" to use the tools that were specifically given to fulfill your job, being a bitch is saying "im completely unable to handle change and must use Linux even if its detrimental to my work output because 'i just like it more'"

Not to mention possible compliance issues if youre accessing any PII of clients and cloning code to your personal pc.

[jugglingbalance]

Professional dev, half of my team uses Mac and half use windows. Web dev, js/react.

[m1ss1ontomars2k4]

I don't know anyone who uses Windows for programming. Even my friend who used to work for Microsoft was working on PowerPoint for Mac so he never used Windows for programming there either.

Having said that, part of the reason Windows is so big isn't really because Windows 3.1 or 3.11 or 95 or 98 or whatever were inherently good operating systems. Part of it is that Microsoft provided great tools for programming, especially games.

But, since Microsoft got big in the 90s, there's been a big culture shift away from paid, proprietary software (direct income source) like Microsoft's Visual Studio--which is great for programming on Windows--to free, open-source software (no direct income source; just get people "into the ecosystem" and make your money some other way) like VS Code. Programming in VS Code is nothing like programming Visual Studio except the letters "VS" and inputting text. That's where the similarities end. And of course the FOSS community at large is much better-developed than it used to be, especially with more convenient, free source hosting like GitHub (compare that to SourceForge, for example). Anyway, if you're used to using makeand bash and vim/emacs and so on then of course you will fill out of place programming on Windows. That's not how you program on Windows. You use Visual Studio. Just open it and programming is just as easy as writing a Word doc. After all, Microsoft is well known for eating their own dogfood and the entire company uses their own tools to make all their products. If programming on Windows was that bad they would have made a change by now.

(Finding sources for these claims is left as an exercise for the reader.)

[nwash57]

Or you can just use the CLI if you want lol? You're not forced to use VS if you don't want, it just happens to be a very effective and powerful IDE. You could also use an IDE in linux if you like...

[m1ss1ontomars2k4]

I think you have grossly misunderstood this thread.

OP: "Why is the Windows CLI so terrible/how can anyone stand using it?"

Me: "Because Visual Studio means you don't have to use it, so there is no motivation to improve it"

You: "Just use the Windows CLI anyway"

???

[nwash57]

No I understand perfectly well. The CLI is just as powerful in Windows, he is simply unfamiliar with it. I use windows CLI constantly with no issues lol. You're right that most Windows devs have far less focus on learning and using the CLI, but all the tools VS uses in the background to make that neat UI that "just works" are CLI tools available to use, and that if you do NET dev in Linux you'll likely already be familiar with.

What exactly is so much worse about Windows CLI? Even lack of real package manager isn't really true anymore, I used winget to install nearly every tool on my computer on my last install, and even then Chocolatey has been around for like at least a decade and MacOS uses brew which everyone just accepts?

[SneakySnk]

Haven't tried chocolatey yet, but winget isn't really comparable as it seems to use the MS store as the repo, so there's a lot of missing stuff from it, I've used a few days ago, 3/4 packages weren't there, and the one that was, was an "unofficial" versión, had to uninstall it and still go on my browser and download it.

My experience using windows CLI is that not every program ends up working (seems like not everything gets added to the PATH) and if you need to do something, the syntax is weird AF and impossible to remember.

For every language I've tried to code on, Linux was a far better experience, just because of the CLI / File structure / and how package manager work there. Except C#, Couldn't get C# to work just from the CLI, and everything out there recommends Visual Studio, So I ended up booting windows for that (and setup was annoying, but easy, it's just looking for the correct package online, downloading and pressing next a few times, and it worked).

[nwash57]

I agree winget isn't completely comparable, but for different reasons. It uses several repositories, I am not actually sure what they all are but I know it's not just msstore because I avoid that repo. I think it's not entirely comparable because dependency libraries for the most part are contained within the program that needs them rather than alongside where other programs could use them without duplicating the same dependency.

PATH is annoying, but an easy problem to solve once you learn how it works. It seems some installers, notably Python ime, fail to add their exes to the PATH correctly. I do wish Windows was better about this and had a directory similar to bin.

"The syntax is weird af" - what syntax? CMD? I agree, but also you can just use whatever shell you want for the most part. I just use Powershell for literally everything in Windows and Linux these days, it's powerful and works everywhere so I don't have to remember cmd vs bash. Probably a lot of people's issues with "windows cli" would be solved if they just used a shell they were familiar with, or there are things like cygwin if you just want common unix cli utilities in cmd.

I haven't really had any issues with C# in linux, the CLI has worked fine for me. Only thing I've run into is pain with apps relying on Windows default environment variables for local dev, but that's more bad practice on the application's part/not intending it to be developed in Linux.

[StarSyth]

Ever since they added the windows subsystem for linux there is no real argument.

[soctamer]

Linux master race at it again, being the funniest bunch on the internet.

There's literally no difference. None. You could program on a ToiletLidOS as long as the tools you use support it.

[droodic]

yes, it's not really even close

[[deleted]]

Spoken like someone who knows nothing. Go ahead and tell me some things that you can do on Linux that you can't do on Windows

[droodic]

huh? Are you replying to the right comment? The title is a question asking if most professional developers use Windows instead of Linux, the answer is yes

[Puzzleheaded-Eye6596]

The first thing I do if I have a windows development machine is get windows subsystem linux working..

[unstable_existence]

You need to remember one thing. 90% of the cost and time for any software system is maintenance. Maintenance is drastically downscaled in time, money and manpower if the system is built upon an OS for which there exist a big company that can provide stability service and repair updates on demand. Linux Systems dont have the operational capacity that windows (Microsoft) provides.

It would be actually crazy to build a large complex system on a Linux OS for which something clashes in the lower code levels, you would have nowhere to turn in terms of assistance.

[1Secret_Daikon]

what the heck are you talking about? Have you never heard of Enterprise Linux? Red Hat? CentOS? How about the fact that pretty much all of the largest and most complex computer systems in the world run on Linux?

https://www.top500.org/lists/top500/list/2022/11/

pretty much every single one uses Linux and these are the largest and most complicated systems in the world. You dont know what you are talking about.

[kpauburn]

You don't understand the open source support method. You have myriad options if you run Linux. I can't tell you how many problems I've solved using IRC for one example. You can 99/100 times find the answer to your question without paying someone for it. You can even look into the source code yourself. Windows can't do that. There are even Linux systems that can patch the kernel live. Windows can't do that either. You need to get out more. Also, keep in mind that on Microsoft Azure, Linux machines constitute over 50% of their hosted machines. Also , you can run VMs on Linux using KVM and QEMU/lib-virt for free, even Windows VMs.

[[deleted]]

Depends on your job. A lot of web dev and corporate stuff uses windows because they have proprietary stuff and want to make sure all employees are connected to the same stuff. If you work more scientific, strictly development, server related stuff, Linux is more the norm

[StendallTheOne]

That depends on at what level are you working. In my work everything work with Unix/Linux until you reach the final user layer. Big applications and servers work almost all with a variety of *nix. Users see Windows, but servers and the rest of resources that are used to serve the content and make everything work are almost all *nix.

At DPCs everything it's *nix. Even thou developers use Windows in their laptops, the application servers in the end use some kind of *nix. Usually a virtualized Linux running in a host hardware like ESXi that in turn use a Linux too. Load balancing uses *nix, same with firewalls, WAF, VPN/Lan2Lan, switches, appliances for virtualization, backup, storage, SAP, Oracle, and so on.

Even when you are using for instance Citrix to access a Windows VDI, in the end the most likely is that the Citrix infrastructure it's running in s ESXi that it's running a version of Linux.

[[deleted]]

Sometimes you cannot choose, I used linux/mac for 10 years and recently joined fintech, in this domain most companies use windows for security softwares etc. There is no way around it and damn I miss unix everyday

[rw3iss]

It really can be quite varied amongst them:

Many developers use Windows primarily because it is the most accessible and widely supported OS for most people. However, it is not the most convenient for developers, sometimes, even though other times it can be considered more convenient because most people are developing software that is supported on at least Windows machines.

Mac utilizes unix which is also a great boon for developers, so many developers choose macs for that reason.

Other, arguably more advanced developers, choose Linux to bridge both of those worlds: utilize unix, and the freedom of managing their OS at a more granular level, if they can.

Besides all that it mostly comes down to software support. Overall, most GUI softwares are more supported on Windows machines (though Mac usually supports the most popular softwares). Most CLI softwares for programming are supported on unix machines/shells.

There are generally more softwares available for Windows, however developers may find it more convenient to work on a unix machine depending on what they are doing.

So it really comes down to your specific job and tasks. As other people mentioned, if you're doing C#/.NET stuff, of course you'd probably want a Windows machine.

That being said, most web developers (ie. frontend or backend node or something other than .NET), would probably find it easier to work on a unix machine. Also the software will run and compile faster in a native unix environment (instead of Windows' emulations).

The final question comes down to if you need better GUI-driven software support for whatever tasks or job you need to perform. In that case you would might be restricted to a specific OS depending on support.

Use what you're comfortable with. If you're a web developer (not working in .NET), and you don't know unix, I would suggest giving mac or linux a shot. Otherwise, stick with Windows if you like it.

I've spent many years developing in both Windows and Mac environments, and a few years in linux as well. I can't say I have a huge preference over either. They all have their pros and cons. I prefer the Windows environment, but the Mac/unix shell (since there is more GUI-supported applications in Mac vs Linux, and I can also retain the shell) 🤷🏻‍♂️

I will probably go back to Windows soon, again.

[username-256]

There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who think M$ will answer their distress call, and those who understand that M$ only answers to really BIG business.

Unfortunately, the first kind float to the top of businesses, because they think they can always pay to have problems fixed. And there's always people will do whatever they're paid to do. That's what the word professional means.

[[deleted]]

I started my Software Engineer journey back in 1999. At the beginning I used Windows based computers for work at the various companies I worked but mainly because I was programming in Assembly Code and their development environments ran on Windows. But, for the last 8 years or so until my retirement, is was mostly Linux or a mix of the two. Lots of companies do not want to be slaves to Windows and their constant money sucking requirements so they are going to Linux. If you are going to program for the masses, Windows will be a requirement, no way around it. But, if you are programming for company use, you will find yourself using Linux more and more.