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Andrew Baisden
Andrew Baisden

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What type of computer do Linux Developers use?

I always hear people talking about how great Linux is to use for development but I am curious what computers do you use? Is it a Mac or Windows machine with multiple boot options or do you buy something custom?

Latest comments (59)

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contradicthelaw profile image
Minh Nguyen (he/him)

My development laptop runs Linux, and I found the experience much better than my work laptop running Windows despite the dev machine having much less RAM and CPU power. The reason why it works for me is mainly because most of the tools I use are built around the Linux environmentβ€”Docker, MariaDB and NPM/Yarn are much quicker than in Windows.

I've also customised my workspace to strip out most of the unnecessary interactions that come with other desktop environments (I use i3 as my environment):

  • All my programs open maximised.
  • I can use keyboard shortcuts for almost everything, like manipulating and moving between program windows.
  • I can effectively use virtual workspaces to segment the things I'm working on. Firefox is on desktop 1, terminal is on desktop 2, and the code editor is on desktop 3.
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andrewbaisden profile image
Andrew Baisden

Seems to me that a lot of developers enjoy working in Linux you all have such nice cool setups. And there are so many nice flavours of Linux to play around with. I have noticed that many have migrated away from Windows to Linux but what about from macOS?

Doing iOS development is best on a mac and Windows is probably the best for gaming. So what's a better combo. Linux + macOS or Linux + Windows?

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contradicthelaw profile image
Minh Nguyen (he/him)

I couldn't tell you about people moving from macOS to Linux, but your point is definitely valid that you do need macOS to develop apps for it and iOS.

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dwaynebradley profile image
Dwayne Bradley

Currently a Windows Surface Laptop 3 with Ubuntu 20.04 in WSL2. πŸ˜‰

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ivan_jrmc profile image
Ivan Jeremic • Edited

I use WSL on windows, all my code/IDE/Git is installed there

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kyawmini profile image
kyawshwe

nice

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dar5hak profile image
Darshak Parikh

I have a modest Dell Vostro from seven years ago. It came with Ubuntu, but it's not one of their Developer Edition models. I wrote about it last month.

Seeing a lot of low-end entries here, I find I'm not the only one. Good to know!

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annietaylorchen profile image
Annie Taylor Chen

I have a discussion here:
dev.to/annietaylorchen/which-compu...

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kaeptnkrunch profile image
Stephan B. R. Langenau

I use since over 10 years Linux on my daily driver. I use from Ubuntu over Debian and Fedora mostly every common distribution. M all time favourite is openSUSE, and Debian. I know a lot of Kernel Developers who use distributions like Debian or Fedora. Also the founder of Linux Linus Torvald use Fedora.

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huyhoang8398 profile image
Do Hoang

Im using thinkpad x1, it's great for both work and study, just a very small issue with sound, but they was fixed in kernel 4.8 and pulseaudio 13+ :v
btw I use Arch

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flexbed profile image
jay@γ€γγ‚‚γŒγΏ ~ $

I use Linux on my main development desktop PC (an old i3 with 12GB RAM + dual monitors), and my laptop (lenovo i7 + 8GB RAM), both works very well for my work (mainly web development in PHP, Python, React, Express, eventually some VMs in local).
Also have a Raspberry Pi 1 and a Raspberry Pi 3 on my LAN running some services.

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konstantinklima profile image
Konstantin Klima

I run a dual boot setup with Manjaro Linux for development and other work and Windows for gaming, media and image editing.
I have both OSs on separate SSDs and share a NTFS partitioned HDD between them for storage.

I built the PC myself (ryzen 1600x, 16gb HyperX ram, 1060 6gb).

I used to run Manjaro on my laptoo as well (though it died on me a few days ago). :)

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hi_artem profile image
Artem

I used to be on Linux full time before switching to Mac provided by work. All the machines were formerly Windows. Now I use Vagrant whenever I need Linux access. IMHO it is the best way to get Linux vm if you don't care about UI.
For the native install, Linux works everywhere and there is no wrong machine for it.

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drhyde profile image
David Cantrell

Do you mean people who are hacking on the Linux kernel? People working on Linux GUI apps? People writing code that will be deployed on Linux servers?

I'm mostly in the last of those camps these days, and I use Mac OS on a Mac laptop. My code gets built and tested on Linux via Jenkins somewhere in Teh Clownd. In the extremely rare event that I need to run my code on Linux, that's what Virtualbox is for.

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andrewbaisden profile image
Andrew Baisden

I just meant purely for work but those other ones are good topics.

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el_giancar profile image
Giancarmine

I use Linux in my two laptop, on an HP with an AMD APU (impossible to use with windows), and on my little chuwi aerobook (perfect integration, light and smooth)

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erica (she/her)

My Linux machine is a Dell XPS 13 from 2016 - been running Windows on it from the factory until earlier this year. Wiped it completely and did a full Ubuntu install and it feels lighter and faster than when I first got it.

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anibalardid profile image
Anibal

I have gamer laptop, not for games, only to have power. I have asus tuf fx laptop (32gb ram, ryzen 7 with 8 cores, 500gb ssd).
I use linux (ubuntu now, but I try differents distros).
And always I use external display (samsung 27"), and external wireless mouse and keyboard.

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andrewbaisden profile image
Andrew Baisden

I used to have one of those old 17” Dell XPS gaming laptops back in the day it was huge! I also used it more for power than gaming. One friend asked me why I needed such a big laptop πŸ˜… And at the company I was working with at the time they joked that I was getting a work out carrying that thing around.

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Anibal

hahaha :D I had macbook pro 13" before, and I don't miss that, I love my 17" screen