Cheri Ruska wrote:
Any thoughts on this? I am contemplating a switch from a Windows platform to Linux. Thanks!
I use Linux for developing because I use Linux full stop but I'm still not sure why it's better to develop things on Linux and I was hoping someone would give a clear cut answer as to why it's the case but as yet no-one has....any takers?
I have just gone through the process of switching my laptop from windows to Fedora 8 I had windows xp, and to be honest I could not complain, I had installed loads of stuff on it over the last three years and it has behaved pretty well. I had all the apps I wanted, but it had just recently ground to a halt, primarily because I had installed the full avg which is a killer (avg free was great, but the whole package is just too heavy for my machine). Also as I have said in another post, I was using RadRails and it had also become too resource hungry. Opening Adobe reader with Agile rails added to the pain. (It opens in Evince in Linux like a flash - excuse the pun)
Having spent the last week getting everything together under Fedora, I am now well happy. In fact I was intending to re-install windows as a dual boot, but gparted very successfully shrunk the windows partition for me (after uninstalling most of the large apps first), so the old xp remained intact, meaning I didnt lose windows whilst setting up Fedora. I am still having some problems getting all the Firefox media plugins working satisfactorily, but that is just a matter of time.
My main reason for switching to Linux is that I dont want to stay in the Windows path - ie. I really dont want to go to Vista. I have to support it occasionally and I find it really annoying that so much has been needlessly changed.
Having Linux on as my main development machine was an experiment - the MAC path was tempting since one of my customers is going down that route, but I really want to promote open source. I was prepared to abandon the conversion if I hit any major obstacles, but at the end of the first week, I am now content. Working every day on my development system on my laptop under linux means that I shall now gain more linux experience and knowledge, rather than spending time fixing windows and trying to find non expensive windows options.
So my main tools I now have installed are: - Firefox (my profile transferred from windows with no issues - including plugins like Web developer and Firebug.). - Thunderbird (again with profile transferred from windows with no issues) - openoffice - Netbeans (I have switched from RadRails and it looks very promising) - Pidgin - for msn, (very easy to set up)- and also has irc capabilty - I want to start using the rails channel - Mysql and Mysql gui (all install directly with yum - I use yumex) - openvpn - the network manager that comes with Fedora nicely combines handling of wireless and wired LAN and the vpn connection. - xine for playing dvds - the Fedora package manager handles installation of Ruby, Rails and also a number of the plugins. - Wine. This automatically found the dlls on the windows partition etc and so just works (again installed by the package manager). The one windows app I didnt want to lose was Serif Photoplus, which I use for creating most of my images. After installing wine, I put the Photoplus disk in and it installed and ran first time. (I just need to fix the fonts - I remember having to do that on a previous use of Wine and IE4Linux so it is possible, I have just got to find out how again).
Well that's about it, Linux on my laptop is running rock solid - with everything I need - wireless was a bit fiddly initially, but no worse than windows was and is now running soundly. (I have yet to find out how it copes with moving between several different wireless networks, although I reckon it looks promising).
So back to your question - why change? I would say this - the great thing about Rails is that you dont need to. Using Windows as someone has said is fine. I am happy that I have now proved to myself that I can use Linux for all my desktop requirements as well as the server needs, I cant advise clients to do it if I havn't succeeded myself. I think the Linux system now runs better and faster than the windows did - the fan doesnt go into overdrive anything like as much, but that is marginal. My main motivation - I just really like the open source community and want to get much more knowledgeable on Linux. In the end, it seems to me, your reasons will really just be your own.
regards tonypm
Phil Tayo wrote:
I use Linux for developing because I use Linux full stop but I'm still not sure why it's better to develop things on Linux and I was hoping someone would give a clear cut answer as to why it's the case but as yet no-one has....any takers?
The two leading platforms in the world are Windows and Linux (with MacOSX in third place). They differ by both usability and technology.
I'm typing on Windows right now. It has the best usability in the world, simply because MS has (_had_) the resources to actually research usability, and do "time and motion studies" on people using their interfaces. For example, if you minimize a window, and if you use Alt+Tab to look for it (/mirabile dictu!!/) you can bring it back!
Linux is not afraid to copy Windows, at this level of convenience. I use Ubuntu on my notebook. Ubuntu is "for people who can't learn to use Debian", and that is a _good_ thing. Ubuntu climbed to the top of the (very wide) Linux distro heap simply by obeying the user's needs.
MacOSX, by contrast, is run by zealots afflicted by an obsequious compulsion to differ from Windows wherever it's inconvenient. We use it at work, and at least, after almost a decade of life, Alt+Tab switches between top-level applications. But if you minimize a window, Alt+Tab will not reach it. This idiocy beggars the imagination, and MacOSX is unbelievably full of it.
Technologically, there's a reason programmers love the Unices (Linux, and the FreeBSD inside MacOSX). Of course Free Software is wonderful, but MS could compete with it easily if they dropped their corporate mandate to commit "Vendor Lockin" by any means necessary. For example, ASP.NET makes unit testing your code absurdly difficult for one reason - MS uses it to promote their feeble web server, IIS. If you could tell ASP.NET to format a web page in isolation from its server, so you could test it, then you could conceivably serve that page thru Apache. MS uses its tools to control programmers. Free Software gives programmers they can control, and that's why Free Software will always win.
Ever since I learned to develop websites, I have used this platform:
- a Linux running on a lite server - Samba linking its drive to my Windows desktop - a Windows editor, such as Visual Studio - CygWin, with remote X, over SSH, running Konsole
Best of both worlds!
I have just gone through the process of switching my laptop from windows to Fedora 8
For the love of the diety or not of your choosing - why? It has pitiful usability...
What does your Delete key do today?
I had windows xp, and to be honest I could not complain, I had installed loads of stuff on it over the last three years and it has behaved pretty well. I had all the apps I wanted, but it had just recently ground to a halt, primarily because I had installed the full avg which is a killer (avg free was great, but the whole package is just too heavy for my machine).
Windows will never fix their heap management. I have heard they will frag memory after chronic use. This frags their swap file and slows them down.
My main reason for switching to Linux is that I dont want to stay in the Windows path - ie. I really dont want to go to Vista.
In some circles, Vista is considered the greatest thing that ever happened to Ubuntu.
Phil Tayo wrote:
I use Linux for developing because I use Linux full stop but I'm still not sure why it's better to develop things on Linux and I was hoping someone would give a clear cut answer as to why it's the case but as yet no-one has....any takers?
The two leading platforms in the world are Windows and Linux (with MacOSX in third place). They differ by both usability and technology. I'm typing on Windows right now. It has the best usability in the world,
*cough*
simply because MS has (_had_) the resources to actually research usability, and do "time and motion studies" on people using their interfaces. For example, if you minimize a window, and if you use Alt+Tab to look for it (/mirabile dictu!!/) you can bring it back!
I think you are incorrect here (unless we were having this argument in 1995) The word Usability shouldnt even be used in the same sentence as microsoft. Find the videos on the net of the microsoft "usability" team talking about designing vista.....she openly talks about apple being an inspiration for vista as they are usability experts!! Theres other videos interviewing gates and he openly talks about shifting energy to place some more focus on usability (like apple). "Downgrade" to vista from xp...use it...and then "upgrade" back to XP and u will find XP is actually more "usable" than vista. MS seem to think making a good os is about lots of fluffy tweens and a shiny new interface.....it is a pig dog!
Linux is not afraid to copy Windows, at this level of convenience. I use Ubuntu on my notebook. Ubuntu is "for people who can't learn to use Debian", and that is a _good_ thing. Ubuntu climbed to the top of the (very wide) Linux distro heap simply by obeying the user's needs.
Who cares who folows who.....Im gonna use the system that gets it right.
MacOSX, by contrast, is run by zealots afflicted by an obsequious compulsion to differ from Windows wherever it's inconvenient. We use it at work, and at least, after almost a decade of life, Alt+Tab switches between top-level applications. But if you minimize a window, Alt+Tab will not reach it. This idiocy beggars the imagination, and MacOSX is unbelievably full of it.
Obviously a Microsoft Share holder who's ex girlfriend left him for someone with a mac. Disregard his comment
Technologically, there's a reason programmers love the Unices (Linux, and the FreeBSD inside MacOSX). Of course Free Software is wonderful, but MS could compete with it easily if they dropped their corporate mandate to commit "Vendor Lockin" by any means necessary. For example, ASP.NET makes unit testing your code absurdly difficult for one reason - MS uses it to promote their feeble web server, IIS. If you could tell ASP.NET to format a web page in isolation from its server, so you could test it, then you could conceivably serve that page thru Apache. MS uses its tools to control programmers. Free Software gives programmers they can control, and that's why Free Software will always win.
"The entire Rails core team is using TextMate on Mac OS X" !!! theres a good reason for that.....
Linux for Servers, Macs for productivity, windows for Solitare!
tonypm wrote:
So my main tools I now have installed are: - Firefox (my profile transferred from windows with no issues - ...
Don't forget AVG, the free antivirus software!