I wouldn't consider Win vs Mac vs Nix much of a critical choice nowadays. My primary desktop OS is Windows, and has been that way for 99% of the time. I am very familiar with it, I like PC gaming very much, and I don't want to move from it. But I develop software, specifically for the web, and it's just so much more convenient to do this under Nix: the tools are amazing, and this is likely going to be the environment where my software will be run. There being many others like me, Microsoft did us all a nice, and added WSL. Suddenly, this is no longer a choice I have to make: WSL2 allows me to have Linux natively, and that brings LXC which enables Docker. And if you can Docker, you can whatever. As a result, I have 0 tools installed in my Win10 desktop OS (apart from the IDE, which of course runs and looks much better in the native OS); and yet all the tools I need are available to me at least as conventiently as before. The WSL environment is the perfect place to contain things like Git, which is usable for every project, and which is required for the tooling I use (like PHPStorm). Every project I start gets a Docker environment configuration which contains all of the pre-requisites for that program, and I can deploy an app atomically and with extreme ease and reliability. Modern tooling like IntelliJ software integrates with WSL (such as to run Git), and allows for remote interpreters (including inside Docker containers), which it connects to in order to run PHP and tools built with PHP (like Composer). Because all of the configuration in the Docker environment is known (you configure it, and simply commit it to the project), it becomes possible to also ship the IntelliJ project configuration with the source (like on Github), and any contributors immediately get the same environment like myself, which allows them to gets started without delay, and without having to re-configure their environment every time they switch to a different project. Here's an example of a template for such a project: github.com/Dhii/php-project
As for the laptop itself, I have Razer Blade Pro 17, and it's very good for both gaming and development (and I guess for everything else too, therefore). The only complaints I have:
Runs very slow when unplugged. I understand that this beast needs juice, but isn't the juice in the battery? Even on the exact same Performance power plan settings, it slows down considerably as soon as it is unplugged. So much so that there's visible stuttering, and things like face unlock takes like 5-7 seconds to work.
Small battery. A surprizingly small battery for such a powerful laptop, it only realistically gives a couple of hours of low-intensity work - like applications stuff, movie, etc.
Doesn't work well with my JBL TUNE600BTNS headphones. Intermittent robot voice, automatic misconfiguration of input and output channels, etc.
Doesn't go to sleep when it should. Nowadays, it just never switches off on its own, even at night.
That said, I guess at least some of those issues are due to the somewhat esoteric setup I have (WSL, Docker, Discord, etc). I use 3 virtual desktops, and each one typically has quite a few Chrome tabs open, not to mention the IDE, entertainment stuff like Spotify and Youtube, various messengers, steam, time tracking and project management software, etc etc. Also, as I research and understand the problems deeper, I am able to circumvent them much more easily - like shutting down WSL when I'm not using it in order to save power (this also sometimes remedies its insomnia), or manually selecting the sound i/o channels when they get mixed up by the OS or specific applications. As soon as it is plugged in, though, everythin works lightning fast. Overall, this is an excellent product, and IMO is the most powerful portable PC solution that doesn't look like a toy (yes, I'm looking at you, Alienware). It is very expensive, but not as expensive as the top range Macs (sometimes considerably cheaper). Highly recommended despite the problems I listed. In fact, since it is apparently impossible to ship anything with a LiIo (or any other volatile) battery to my country, I had to order it 3 times, waited 10 months, and paid out of my butt for all that stuff, but even despite the fact that a newer model came out a couple of months after I got mine, making it instantly obsolete and thus causing a price drop, it was totally worth the wait.
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Microsoft, IntelliJ, Razer, or any of the other brands, companies, or organisations that I have listed, in any way whatsoever.
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I wouldn't consider Win vs Mac vs Nix much of a critical choice nowadays. My primary desktop OS is Windows, and has been that way for 99% of the time. I am very familiar with it, I like PC gaming very much, and I don't want to move from it. But I develop software, specifically for the web, and it's just so much more convenient to do this under Nix: the tools are amazing, and this is likely going to be the environment where my software will be run. There being many others like me, Microsoft did us all a nice, and added WSL. Suddenly, this is no longer a choice I have to make: WSL2 allows me to have Linux natively, and that brings LXC which enables Docker. And if you can Docker, you can whatever. As a result, I have 0 tools installed in my Win10 desktop OS (apart from the IDE, which of course runs and looks much better in the native OS); and yet all the tools I need are available to me at least as conventiently as before. The WSL environment is the perfect place to contain things like Git, which is usable for every project, and which is required for the tooling I use (like PHPStorm). Every project I start gets a Docker environment configuration which contains all of the pre-requisites for that program, and I can deploy an app atomically and with extreme ease and reliability. Modern tooling like IntelliJ software integrates with WSL (such as to run Git), and allows for remote interpreters (including inside Docker containers), which it connects to in order to run PHP and tools built with PHP (like Composer). Because all of the configuration in the Docker environment is known (you configure it, and simply commit it to the project), it becomes possible to also ship the IntelliJ project configuration with the source (like on Github), and any contributors immediately get the same environment like myself, which allows them to gets started without delay, and without having to re-configure their environment every time they switch to a different project. Here's an example of a template for such a project:
github.com/Dhii/php-project
As for the laptop itself, I have Razer Blade Pro 17, and it's very good for both gaming and development (and I guess for everything else too, therefore). The only complaints I have:
That said, I guess at least some of those issues are due to the somewhat esoteric setup I have (WSL, Docker, Discord, etc). I use 3 virtual desktops, and each one typically has quite a few Chrome tabs open, not to mention the IDE, entertainment stuff like Spotify and Youtube, various messengers, steam, time tracking and project management software, etc etc. Also, as I research and understand the problems deeper, I am able to circumvent them much more easily - like shutting down WSL when I'm not using it in order to save power (this also sometimes remedies its insomnia), or manually selecting the sound i/o channels when they get mixed up by the OS or specific applications. As soon as it is plugged in, though, everythin works lightning fast. Overall, this is an excellent product, and IMO is the most powerful portable PC solution that doesn't look like a toy (yes, I'm looking at you, Alienware). It is very expensive, but not as expensive as the top range Macs (sometimes considerably cheaper). Highly recommended despite the problems I listed. In fact, since it is apparently impossible to ship anything with a LiIo (or any other volatile) battery to my country, I had to order it 3 times, waited 10 months, and paid out of my butt for all that stuff, but even despite the fact that a newer model came out a couple of months after I got mine, making it instantly obsolete and thus causing a price drop, it was totally worth the wait.
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Microsoft, IntelliJ, Razer, or any of the other brands, companies, or organisations that I have listed, in any way whatsoever.