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by 746F7475 3392 days ago
Imo the Windows linux compatibility layer is a nice gesture, but there already existed stuff like Cygwin that did most of the stuff.

I haven't really paid any attention to the feature set since I've only used Windows for games for past 5 years and ~6 months ago I gave up on Windows completely, but let's say it give you everything Linux gives you. You can just use rvm.io to install your ruby and then use gems to install everything else you need (author used Jekyll as an example). What is the real gain to be have'd?

I can not see a single reason to switch over to Windows from perfectly working OS just because Windows is catching up. Only argument you can reasonably make is that Apple has neglected Macs and you can build faster/more powerful PC and run Windows on it, but what front-end stuff needs that much power? Imo unless you are working with 3D or something like a game meant to played on Windows there is no benefit switching to a more powerful machine.

Maybe I'm missing something obvious, maybe the author was upgrading from early 00s model of Mac/MacBook, but if you have anything even recent-ish from Apple, I see no benefit in switching.
4 comments
wvenable 3392 days ago
> but what front-end stuff needs that much power?

The old "640k should be enough for everyone" argument. I'm amazed after decades of continuous performance improvement in computing people are still making this argument.

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doggydogs94 3392 days ago
On Windows, Cygwin is a kluge. And the Linux upoort (I believe) is a side-by-side subsystem vs a compatibility layer. It looks like MS found a better use for the old Posix subsystem.
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jnwatson 3392 days ago
Especially for developer-types, having lots of VMs running is a thing. That takes up quite a bit of RAM, disk, and CPU. 16 GiB RAM just doesn't cut it these days.
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746F7475 3391 days ago
>Especially for developer-types, having lots of VMs running is a thing

Really? Why do you need lots of VMs? Back when I did front end stuff I used Vagrant, so that's one, but maybe I weren't a real developer.

Now days I work with embedded stuff and only reason some people run VMs is that some clients use VPNs that require Windows, so they are running Linux on top of Windows, but again that's just one VM.

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cwyers 3392 days ago
The author specifically talked about VR and gaming, which are things that need more power (especially in the GPU department) than what Apple is offering right now.
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