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by justinlloyd 2050 days ago
I run all three major OS for development work. Windows 10 is my daily driver, but not used for everything. Today, even though I am at two machines running Windows, both have a Linux OS running in a VM that I am using predominantly for today and probably the next several weeks whilst I rebuild firmware images and create/update Linux device drivers for an embedded system.

Hardware wise: You can never have too much. I have a Windows workstation, a Surface Book 2 and a Macbook Pro, lots of monitors, keyboards, mice, tablets. A Linux server running Docker containers for various services, e.g. adguard, firewall, proxy server, gitlabs and mercurial, backup, and so forth. These are all optional, I could probably get away with just a powerful laptop if pressed.

Software:

VMWare Workstation Pro or VMWare Fusion, that permits access to Windows, Linux & macOS.

Visual Studio Pro on Windows

VSCode on Linux & macOS

SublimeText3

The full Jetbrains suite on all three platforms

Android Studio

XCode (macOS)

The various terminal tools, as mentioned by someone else.

OneNote for notes, installed on every computer in the house, and every tablet and my phone too.

A physical sketchbook/ruled notebook (half sketch paper, half is ruled pages) with two mechanical pencils, and a straight edge. I cannot emphasize a physical notebook strongly enough, even though I am dyslexic and disgraphic and have lousy handwriting and it makes my hands cramp, a physical notebook is invaluable.

Microsoft Office Lens for scanning physical notes and whiteboard sessions in to OneNote

OpalCalc on Windows, Soulver on macOS, Speedcrunch on Linux

Bitwarden with self-hosted server installed on all Windows Subsystem Linux on Windows

ConEmu for Windows

DirectoryOpus for Windows, PathFinder for macOS

WinMerge on Windows, Kaleidoscope on macOS. Though I also like Araxis Merge and Beyond Compare.

Tower (old version) because fuck you and your subscription model.

Synology Drive for file sync between devices

Synology Backup for backing up the machines

IDA and Binary Ninja for reverse engineering and diving in to binaries

I am sure there are things I am missing that I use almost daily but have slipped my mind. These tools make up my workbench and let me tackle a lot of different work, much like how my workshop contains many different tools for different aspects of woodworking, metalworking and other fabrication and maker-type tasks.

edit: blank lines because I forgot HN doesn't separate lines without it.