[tylerhou]

Setup scripts that mutate an operating system are fragile. Break something? Unless you understand how the scripts work (which will become stupidly complex at a scale like Uber’s) you will have to reinstall your machine. Or you will have to staff a ton of support to help users when they do break their configuration.

Spinning up a VM with an image containing all the development tools is a much smoother experience most of the time. The only reason why I don’t use it where I work is because I use vim and network adds too much latency for me.

[Arelius]

That's a false dichotomy. Just because you don't have a VM doesn't mean that the alternative is a build environment and setup that mutates an operating system.

[layer8]

Using a VM is fine. One can use it locally.