[rogerbinns]

The problem is that platform choices impact other developers. If for example the developers are predominantly using a Windows software stack and tools and Linux user comes along then there is a burden to make things portable (eg a deployment or analysis script). So who does the effort for that portability? Are all the Windows developers also supposed to add it (ie adapt to another platform - Linux) or is the Linux developer supposed to do so (ie adapt to another platform - Windows)?

Our situation is the other way around where deployment is to Linux (AWS/AppEngine) and there are several internal tools that work seamlessly on Linux and Mac. Having to add conditionals all over the place for Windows (not to mention the additional testing) is not free. The new developers can adapt to Linux or they aren't very good developers. (Note we make it abundantly clear that we use Linux and Mac for development in our job ads.)

[jrogers65]

In my opinion, it would be better to create an OS abstraction layer for the application so that conditionals do not have to be added everywhere and people are able to use whatever tools they are comfortable with.