[boundlessdreamz]

1. "macOS updates won't ruin your setup" - How can this be guaranteed since shared libraries may change in OS updates?

2. Docker on mac is a memory hog (was a performance hog too until the virtioFS changes landed). But docker allows me to run the same setup in local as well CI and optionally in production.

Hence it doesn't appeal to me but it looks like a good alternative to MAMP. Good luck!

[IndigoStack]

The binaries that ship with Indigo install their own shared libraries to /usr/local/Indigo. However there are a number of cases where they do still depend on macOS dylibs (stuff like libSystem, libiconv, libc++). In this case macOS updates won't ruin your setup, because Indigo will ship with binaries that specifically work with the new OS.

Re: 2) if that works for you that's great. However a lot of developers end up using Docker abstractions (for very good reasons) such as Lando or Laradock which specifically don't attempt to replicate a production environment any closer than Indigo does. So as @Chrischen says below, use something highly productive for development, and use a clone of your Production Docker stack for QA. Arguably that's the only way to truly be sure your tests pass in your Production environment.

[chrischen]

I suppose you can run your tests in docker and just do dev work in a "good enough" replica.

[IndigoStack]

Exactly. I would argue this is the only way you can be sure your code will run properly in Production.

I found that when I tried developing inside a clone of my Production Docker environment, I started having to change more and more things over time eg installing Xdebug etc that meant it was not the reliable test environment I hoped it would be.