[akulbe]

I have Linux-on-the-Windows-Desktop. WSL, that is. For my use case, it's fucking amazing. I've come full circle.

I switched from Windows to Linux in 1999. I switched from Linux to Mac in 2003.

I've used Linux natively, it turned into a hack-fest. I spent more time trying to get things working, than getting ACTUAL work done. Using the Linux platform for development is fantastic.

It's when you want to do non-dev related productivity stuff that it got frustrating for me. You had to have workarounds galore. Or you had to have Wine, or you had to have a full Windows VM (when $APP didn't have a good nix-y equivalent).

macOS was great when the computer hardware was prioritized. Then at some point, Apple shifted focus. It was all about a cohesive experience, and integration galore. Then it shifted. Now it's all about iOS/iPadOS/watchOS/tvOS. macOS and its hardware have largely taken a back seat. See the MacBook Pro 2016-.

When Apple releases the 2019 MBP and it IMMEDIATELY goes onto the keyboard repair program... you know that in spite of all lip service to the contrary, that Apple gives no fucks about the Apple computer, like they do their gravy train products.

I needed an environment that'd let me still target Linux development, but stay-the-eff-out-of-my-way for productivity stuff. Windows it is. I know that's not what HNer's wanna hear, but the cultural shift at MS and using MS for a dev platform... it's been surprising, and amazing. Not what I'd expected in a million years. #flyingpigs #flameon

Anyone else experience a similar evolution?

[moksly]

I’ve made the same transitions from win to Linux to Mac and for the same reasons. I’m going back to Linux though.

I’ve used windows professionally all that time and Windows 10 is the least productive it’s ever been, for me anyway. It’s just such a horrible experience and I don’t know exactly why that is. I didn’t even mind CMD and powershell and it’s not that I dislike Microsoft. I recently traded my personal g-suite in for a Office365 essentials plan, and I’m rather happy with it, but I just can’t get on the right food of Windows 10. I wish I could, the Surface Books are genuinely the modern MacBook Pro, but Ubuntu is just a better experience.

Of course there is still a few quirks, the only one that’s really bothered me is the lack of a Linux One Drive client, which should frankly tell you how little Microsoft has really changed. They don’t intend to be good for Linux, they want Linux to be good for them.

[akulbe]

To discount the sweeping changes in the company culture because they haven't yet worked on what you want them to, don't you think that's a little short-sighted?

I wanted Microsoft to release a new terminal. It took 2 years. Now that it's out, I want it to support panes. There's only so much they can do at once.

I wanted a good consistent UI experience for Linux. It's been decades and that still hasn't happened. The groups maintaining KDE and Gnome can hardly agree among themselves much less with the userbase.

At this point, I'm more inclined to believe that Microsoft will get things done faster, than the Linux community will.

I'm not slamming Linux, either. Just being realistic after many years/attempts of being user. Better to have a stable and consistent base to work from. If you ask me, that's why so many folks who target Linux for development do it from a non-Linux platform. It makes for a much less frustrating experience.

[moksly]

We’ve worked with Microsoft for decades and I personally really like them as an enterprise partner, but I’m just not seeing those sweeping cultural changes you are.

They’ve certainly opened up, they’ve even open sourced .Net with core. It works with Linux, but it works better if you feed it security through Active Directoy, monitor it with Application insights and deploy it in Azure. There is now a CLI, VSC and Visual Studio for Mac, but Visual Studio for Windows is still light years better. And that’s really the general story. They’ve opened up, but I see it much more as Microsoft understanding the market again than a “new” Microsoft. I’m fine with it, it’s certainly nice to have better products, but I do think it’s the same old story of getting the most out of your environment if you buy all of it from Microsoft. I’m perfectly fine with that by the way, they are a company after all, and if they can make better products than they did before then cool!

I don’t personally think Windows 10 is a better product though. I find it to be one of the most frustrating OSes I’ve ever had to use, aWd that’s why I’m not going windows -> Linux -> Mac -> Windows like you are. I think Ubuntu is a much better experience than Windows 10, but then, I happen to actually really like gnome.

[ianai]

I’ve just concluded that a decent GUI/UX requires more resources than any OSS project ever will. Or even any project outside of Apple/MS.