Hey, I am a Software engineer with around 6+ YOE at this point. This is my take on Windows vs Linux vs macOS.
My Journey
I have been using a PC since my childhood, starting with Windows. When I joined a company, I was introduced to macOS.
I immediately fell in love with the smooth and rich experience of Apple’s hardware paired with macOS. Everything felt so smooth and buttery. On top of that, the development experience was far better since it is based on Unix, similar to Linux.
Experience with Linux
While working on a Mac provided by the company, my old Windows laptop started showing performance issues, frequently lagging and freezing. So, I formatted it and installed Pop!_OS. The performance improvement was massive, and the development experience also got better since it was a Linux-based OS.
The freedom to configure, modify, and personalise your setup is amazing. It gives you a sense of ownership and belonging that feels very satisfying. But at the same time, it can be a headache when you get stuck. Even though the Linux community is strong, I often found myself spending a long time troubleshooting certain issues. It might be a skill issue on my part, but you cannot deny that the learning curve for Linux is steeper than for the other two operating systems.
For me, the best OS choice became obvious: macOS, especially with Apple’s hardware.
Another drawback of Linux-based systems is the limited app support compared to Windows and macOS. For example, the Comet browser by Perplexity is available for Windows and macOS, but not for Ubuntu.
Pros & Cons
To summarise, here are the pros and cons of each in terms of web development:
Windows
Pros & Cons: (Skipping for now) I will cover this in another post. TLDR; I dont like it :)
Linux
Pros: Environment similar to where your code will be deployed, freedom to modify and configure your machine as you please, FREE FREE FREE.
Cons: Steep learning curve, lower app availability compared to the other two.
macOS
Pros: Unix-based development environment, wide availability of tools and applications, smooth and buttery experience, excellent battery backup.
easy access to tools like bash, zsh, and brew
Cons: Expensive AF, less freedom to customise, costly repairs and upgrades.
At the end of the day the best OS depends on personal preference and workflow needs. For me, macOS is the perfect balance between performance, reliability, and development experience.
Top comments (2)
The battery life in a MacBook is amazing, but key bindings are my personal pain point. When you work in the terminal, your fingers move like they're breakdancing. Another issue is the lack of hotkeys for window management. In many cases, you have to drag windows by holding the touchpad, which is so distracting!
I totally get you! There are definitely tools you can set up to fix that. For terminal work, tmux is a great and you’ll probably end up using it on Linux too. For window management, you can go lightweight with something like Thor Launcher, or, if you want something more powerful, Raycast is great.
Might actually do a separate post just on these tools.