[mrtranscendence]

One of my former coworkers who's an absolutely huge Apple guy recently left for another job. When I asked him whether he could use a Mac he told me he didn't know and hadn't asked ... he must've really wanted that job. Or really hated his old one.

I'd take a job that let me use Linux, but I too am a Mac guy at heart. I had a short stint on Windows not long ago and hated it. Where I work now they'll give developers Macs by default, though getting blanket approval for data scientists has been an uphill battle, stupidly enough.

[blahyawnblah]

Windows with WSL2 is great. Have you tried that?

VSCode can run from WSL2 and have access to its file system

[lnxg33k1]

Wsl 1/2 are quite painful, but the issue is also windows, you might get a wsl3 that is good and it would still be surrounded by windows, i would still tolerate windows but Microsoft isn't offering windows to you as a product that gets out of the way, doesn't touch defaults, doesn't show you ads on the desktop etc, it's using a software to push on you other stuff, so nein

So there are many companies and many projects and i don't work with any Microsoft technology, for me it makes sense to just dodge any company that doesn't allow me any kind of Linux on daily driver, it's just that for me it makes sense, it's not a huge effort, it's not a huge sacrifice, it would be a sacrifice accepting a job with windows/mac when there are many more on linux

[epolanski]

I have exactly the opposite idea. I hate Mac and WSL2 is perfect for development. I've never seen an ad in windows 10 as well.

[lnxg33k1]

While one point of view is subjective, truth isn't, but I'll play the game and ask you if i and others news source are just having a collective visions https://duckduckgo.com/?q=windows+10+ads+start&t=fpas&ia=web

[Vendan]

I also run windows 10 and have never seen a single ad, anywhere in it. Definitely worth noting that this is on a homebuilt computer, and I paid for a windows 10 pro license. Definitely seen ads on my wife's store-bought windows 10 home laptop.

[spoils19]

While one point of view is subjective, truth isn't, but I'll play the game and ask you if i and others news source are just having a collective visions https://duckduckgo.com/?q=windows+10+ads+start&t=fpas&ia=web

[8note]

Who uses the start menu? Click the windows key and start writing a search

[lolinder]

Unless they changed it since I dropped Windows, hitting the windows key opens the start menu.

[tragictrash]

Tell me you don't use Linux without telling me you don't use linux

Wsl is pretty terrible in my experience. your better off using a vm you manage yourself. Every vendor has shared folders. Each one can use a x server to display programs in your windows window manager.

[ygjb]

Oh please. Tell me you are a Linux zealot without telling me you are a Linux zealot. Its a tool in the toolbox. I use Linux everyday on servers at work, two desktops at home, and servers for my partners businesses.

My main personal notebook is a windows device w/WSL and my main work notebook is a MacOS device, because at the end of the day, I need my computer's to just work, painlessly.

WSL is great for alot of Linux userspace stuff and is a fantastic CLI for interacting with and managing remote servers, alongside the ease of Windows. Of course it's not as performance, and had some edges, but I happily accept the trade-offs due to great driver support and the flexibility to run almost any software on one device.

[tragictrash]

I think you misunderstood that remark intended to be humorous. Its too bad you took offense.

Your right about it being a tool. A tool which has better alternatives.

A virtual machine running in virtual box or some other vendor's VM has literally none of the limitations that wsl2 does.

WSL 2 Doesn't fully support all userspace stuff, I bump into that all the time.

You can ssh into other boxes using PowerShell.

It is objectively bad compared to the alternatives.

[Osiris]

"better"? Every tool has pros and cons and tradeoffs. I run Linux, Windows, and MacOS. Each one has it's pros and cons. Each is the "better" tool depending on the need.

The same goes for programming languages and engineering problems. I train my team to identify multiple possible solutions to a problem then identify pros and cons and then pick the solution that optimizes for the most important goal. There is rarely a "right" solution.

[JonChesterfield]

There is rarely a right solution but there are always wrong ones. Searching for pareto optimal contours is great but implies the existence of pareto pessimal contours where N poor solutions combine to make something maximally rubbish.

Software dev is not in a design space where all things are broadly equivalent with small pros and cons to choose between. It's more a discontinuous surface with orders of magnitude of cost/benefit changes as one meanders over a given cliff.

[jbluepolarbear]

Tell me you don’t use WSL without telling me you don’t use WSL.

I use WSL everyday and it’s no different than using native Linux. What’s so terrible? It’s easy to setup and easy to add to windows terminal.

[tragictrash]

File system performance sucks. No fuse support. No direct hardware access. I've experienced stability issues with it. Don't get me started on the networking or custom init put in by Microsoft. Systemctl calls don't work.

It is most definitely not just like regular Linux.

I actually used it pretty extensively for years before I figured out it was causing more friction than it was worth. It's convenient, I'll give you that, but again, it's objectively worse than the other tools available. You should try them.

[Osiris]

What's the big deal if he likes it? It works for him. It's fine.

[tragictrash]

Just because someone likes and uses something doesn't mean there aren't better alternatives that they could benefit from using and learning about.

[8note]

X servers suck though.

Vscode renders sharply without having to do extra work.

Both wsls are reasonably enjoyable. Much better than ssh-ing to a Linux host

[tragictrash]

You realize your using an x server to do that, right? It's just one thats bundled in with windows, and you don't have to configure.

[Osiris]

I thought vs code ran natively as a Windows app and just used a remote connection to wsl to do file management and run cli commands ?

I don't think vs code is running inside the wsl environment directly.

[tragictrash]

There's a couple ways you can do this. The latest revision of WSL lets you run Linux gui apps that appear in a x server window, and you can pin them to the taskbar/start menu. That is definitely using a built in x server.

Opening vscode in windows and opening the Linux vm's file through the "filesystem"(it's a network share) is unstable. You really have to open vscode in Linux, or run it in windows and ssh into the virtual machine for it to work well.

[mrtranscendence]

When I was on Windows I did try WSL, but I had problems with the corporate VPN/proxy. IIRC I essentially had no network connectivity from the WSL side.

Edit: Thinking about it some more, I believe I was able to get WSL1 to work but not WSL2, unfortunately.