I was recently thinking about my computer and it’s Operating System. I really don’t know, if it can handle the journey I will be taking into Web Development. It works fine at the moment, but when I get down and dirty will it be able to hang in there, I guess I will see!
With that being said, I would like to know, and probably everyone else, what is your set up?
Also, what’s the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of your set up?
dont do like I did and get one with not a lot of disk space. My computer science class requires me to run windows 8 and 10 with bootstrap and also run visual studio along with other windows programs. I dont have enough space and apple doesn’t allow you to upgrade ram or disk space
My personal computer is a little $500 laptop running Windows 10. Aside from the fact that it occasionally crashes Chrome, it’s fine. My work computers run Windows 8.1 and are pretty maxed out on hardware. I stand up Linux and Windows Server virtual machines as needed.
Currently, my web setup consists of a four year old Dell Inspiron with Antergos Linux installed, and a newer Macbook pro that is running the latest version of El Capitan. The thing is if you were to ask me which machine was better suited for web development, I’d have to say that it really didn’t matter.
Provided that you have a decent text editor, browser and command line interface there is very little that you will not be able to do in the field of web development, The only area where Windows may be at a disadvantage is its command-line interface, but from what I hear, that is being fixed even as we speak.
The point is to just use whatever tools that you can afford, make you happy, and make you feel productive.
There are certainly some things (mostly command line related) that are easier from a Mac/Linux perspective but with that being said, Windows 10 will soon have bash built in so this shouldn’t be the case for long
I’ve always been of the mindset that you should use the OS you are most comfortable with. I’m a longtime Windows user and prefer to use Vagrant and/or Docker (depending on the project) which allows me to develop via Linux from my Windows machines and eliminates the need to install various servers on my computers.
My Setup
OS: Windows 10 64bit (currently on insider preview build 14352 with bash)
When I started to learn with The Odin Project I switched to Ubuntu, because developing in Ruby/Rails on Windows was nightmare. Then I switched to Free Code Camp, but continued to use Ubuntu. I still have Win10 on dual boot, but I haven’t booted in Windows for months (and I think it’s time to get rid of Windows partition at all).
My PC:
AMD Athlon™ II X2 260 3.2 GHz
8GB DDR3 RAM
Samsung 850 EVO 256GB SSD
Integrated Graphics
My PC is five years old and I have only upgraded HDD to SSD.
Linux Mint 17.3 dual booting with Windows 10 on a custom built desktop named Blue Machine. I will build another desktop this Summer and dub it MacMuncher I, and go back to Elementary OS or vanilla Ubuntu with Windows 10 on another partition. I do all editing in Atom on Linux, and VS Code on Windows.
When it comes to Mac, I have no clue on how-to operate it, because I haven’t ever used anything Mac before.
With that being said, if I was to use a Mac, it would be a whole another learning process, which I don’t have time for. I do good on a Windows machine.
Maybe, one day, Windows will be just as good, as a Mac or even better.
@FlipTheDev there is nothing wrong in using a PC in your development environment. A few years ago I got caught up in argument about what is best for this, Windows, some Unix / Linux flavor, OSX etc… I spent some amount of time researching the question and once you step back from the religions zeal this topic brings out in people you find that any choice is a good choice, and that many many long time professional programmers use Windows. Many use something else. Sometimes, as someone else noted, you use a particular OS because that is what the shop you are working in uses. Sometimes you use a particular OS because that is all that is at hand.
Use whatever you like. Get proficient using it. Be HAPPY!
@FlipTheDev P.S. Windows and OSX, once you get use to using them, are really not that much different. I worked in a school board for years supporting all manner of OS types, and now I hardly notice what I’m using - they’re doing the same things - they are just Operating Systems providing mostly the same functions and services.