Personal computing discussed
Moderators: renee, SecretSquirrel, notfred
just brew it! wrote:TBH I have been "out of the loop" on Windows long enough now that I feel a little lost there, especially on Windows 10. The last version I used to any significant extent was Windows 7, and even that was mainly as a host for Linux VMs, plus some light MS Outlook/Office use. (This was while working at jobs which involved Linux development, but where your primary desktop had to run the corporate Windows image.)
My current work environment is essentially Windows-free; nearly everyone has a MacBook Pro as their primary device, with the developers working in Linux VMs and on remote servers. My daily driver at home has been running some flavor of Ubuntu Linux since 2009 or so.
just brew it! wrote:with the developers working in Linux VMs and on remote servers
Vhalidictes wrote:I envy your home setup, JBI... but... Fallout 4...argh.
I wonder if MS will ever figure out that without DirectX it would have been the "year of the Linux desktop" years ago? At least for technical people, but then we tend to be early adopters.
End User wrote:just brew it! wrote:with the developers working in Linux VMs and on remote servers
Ah ha!
liquidsquid wrote:Its interesting to read this. My take for this is from a primarily hardware guy that probably does software to the iron 25% of the time.
Some of us technical people that need to get stuff done quickly and reliably, stick with the Windows 10 environment, all warts included. In general when you are billing by the hour, customers don't take kindly to spending time fighting kernel revisions, compiler quirks, tool problems, lack of support, and just general tweaking on your system trying to get a build environment up and running.
Of course my development tends to be pretty close to the iron, if not actually developing the iron, so this opens a whole new slew of issues that I see SW guys get bit by on a regular basis. Things like "They must have built this on a different Kernel version, and I cannot find a copy!" and "OMG! You only designed in 1GB of Flash? How can I fit my image on there!?!" Meanwhile I'm thinking if it weren't for the stinking Ethernet support requirement I could run the whole project in about 32K of code space using C/C++ and Free RToS. Other issues like with a Beaglebone Black project: Complete Kernel overhaul causing all sorts of re-do issues for dealing with peripherals and I/O in the middle of a development cycle (for the better in the end).
Most vendor tools are up to date for the Windows platforms, and behind or partially finished on Linux. This winds up forcing the SW developers on Linux to not only tackle working on the application, but also the tools.
So yeah, I have kicked the tires in Linux a few times, but keep hitting extremely aggravating road blocks putting me back into Windows. At this point, I probably will not try again unless a key tool is not available under Windows 10.
just brew it! wrote:End User wrote:just brew it! wrote:with the developers working in Linux VMs and on remote servers
Ah ha!
I'd be a much happier camper if my MBP had enough RAM to comfortably host multiple VMs. 16GB isn't enough. Trying to work on remote servers while sitting in a moving Faraday cage commuter rail car is a PITA; as a developer I vastly prefer to have my entire environment (or at least a decent simulation of it) local.
srg86 wrote:And my work is 100% to the iron and having to use Windows is a PITA, so my experience is 180 degrees opporsite. I guess it depends on the work you do. It is true though that often tools for programming boards etc are primarily developed for Windows, but this is changing at quite a fast pase. Windows is becoming a fairly alien enviroment for me.
I'm kinda desperate to get away from Windows at this moment.
End User wrote:just brew it! wrote:End User wrote:Ah ha!
I'd be a much happier camper if my MBP had enough RAM to comfortably host multiple VMs. 16GB isn't enough. Trying to work on remote servers while sitting in a moving Faraday cage commuter rail car is a PITA; as a developer I vastly prefer to have my entire environment (or at least a decent simulation of it) local.
As an example one can run 3 VMs at once with 3.5GB of memory assigned to each. You would still have roughly 5GB remaining for the host OS. macOS does a good job of memory compression/management especially when ones MBP is equipped with a SSD. If you mobile needs are more than then then I take my hat off to you.
What is the config/purpose of your VMs?
End User wrote:A MacBook Pro with 32GB is a must for the next upgrade cycle.
just brew it! wrote:I'm actually hoping that there's a decent non-Mac option that I could run Linux on natively the next time we do a refresh. There actually *was* a Lenovo option last time around, but the (few) people who got those seem to be very unhappy with them (reliability issues), and IIRC the only Linux distros blessed by IT for desktop use were outdated versions of RHEL and Ubuntu LTS, so the people who went Lenovo are mostly running Windows 7.
DancinJack wrote:just brew it! wrote:I'm actually hoping that there's a decent non-Mac option that I could run Linux on natively the next time we do a refresh. There actually *was* a Lenovo option last time around, but the (few) people who got those seem to be very unhappy with them (reliability issues), and IIRC the only Linux distros blessed by IT for desktop use were outdated versions of RHEL and Ubuntu LTS, so the people who went Lenovo are mostly running Windows 7.
Have you looked at this? Looks like only 16GB of RAM right now, but it's not a rMBP. I have heard good things, too.
http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-1 ... apsed=true
just brew it! wrote:Re Windows vs Linux for embedded...
The last three embedded projects I was involved in all used toolchains which were well-supported on Linux. There was no need to use Windows at all on the development side, and I prefer to work in Linux anyway, so the decision was easy.
The two jobs I had prior to this one had very Windows-centric IT infrastructure though, so in one case I had two systems (a Windows one for accessing my e-mail and editing MS Office docs, and a Linux one for development work); and in the other case I used a VM for development. As mentioned above, current place is more Mac-centric, so I'm using VMs a lot here too.DancinJack wrote:just brew it! wrote:I'm actually hoping that there's a decent non-Mac option that I could run Linux on natively the next time we do a refresh. There actually *was* a Lenovo option last time around, but the (few) people who got those seem to be very unhappy with them (reliability issues), and IIRC the only Linux distros blessed by IT for desktop use were outdated versions of RHEL and Ubuntu LTS, so the people who went Lenovo are mostly running Windows 7.
Have you looked at this? Looks like only 16GB of RAM right now, but it's not a rMBP. I have heard good things, too.
http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-1 ... apsed=true
The new(ish) corporate overlords have a policy of only buying Apple or Lenovo laptops.
just brew it! wrote:I'm actually hoping that there's a decent non-Mac option that I could run Linux on natively the next time we do a refresh.
derFunkenstein wrote:... The only thing I can't do in Linux is my relational DBs class homework, because the DB used for most assignments is an MS Access file.
just brew it! wrote:Ugh. That's disgusting.
Redocbew wrote:I have yet to come across a visual query editor which actually works for the kind of queries a person might want to use a visual editor to write for them.
The homework is equal parts "do this stuff on the command line and take as screenshot of your history"
derFunkenstein wrote:if you're interested in learning about Linux and surviving on the command-line interface (which seems like a must for web developers these days), I think I'd recommend it.