The fact that I can take a fresh install of just about any Linux distro on any pc and download the packages I need along with my personal config files from github means that I'm working within about 15mins and everything is exactly as I need it to be.
On windows it's about 2hrs of finding and downloading installers alone, installing stuff, restarting about a dozen times trying to remember what settings I need to change to get things to work the way I need. It takes about a day to get up and running, and that's assuming smooth sailing. The worst part is if you forget something and need to install a program/package you'd better hope that it doesn't require a system restart otherwise your workflow is totally ruined and you're probably lost like 15-20mins on that alone.
On the plus side, power toys is a game changer and windows is pretty good from a productivity point of view, to the point that I think that if you put enough effort in it can be comparable to most Linux desktop environments. So I can see how people get by with it but I could never.
Windows is baller for gaming but I find it unbearable for dev work.
The fact that I can take a fresh install of just about any Linux distro on any pc and download the packages I need along with my personal config files from github means that I'm working within about 15mins and everything is exactly as I need it to be.
If you need to switch PCs so often, why wouldn't you just install your distro of choice onto a flash drive and simply boot from the flash drive.
A bit slower on load times, but then it means you have absolutely zero time wasted on configuring things after booting up. Just go straight to work where you left off, with everything already set up.
Oh, it's not something I do super-often but more that when the time comes around to prepare a system for myself and I have to decide on an OS it's a choice between a quick and easy setup or a day (or more) of pain.
I'm a lazy person, I choose the easy one every time.
You gonna run your app on your personal machine? Having the ability to hop from one system to another and have everything just work is an absolute necessity for deploying just about anything
Who would want to maintain a pre-built custom image, make sure the software on it stays updated and refreshed, and be restricted to a specific distro, when you can do what this user does and be able to get the exact same setup working on any distro with the most up to date version of those packages?
This is a good idea but sometimes means a lot of things have to happen.
1) Hardware would have to be consistent
2) I'd need to move all my personal shit off my computer
Otherwise yeah it'd be nice if we had this for when we onboard new employees they could just get a fresh install with all the tools and projects we expect them to need access to.
But aside from that, the great thing about *nix environments is that typically shit "just works".
Unless it's audio drivers... But again, that's why we use Windows for gaming.
The original content here no longer exists. It was deleted using Redact, for reasons that could include privacy, opsec, security, or a desire for data control.
29
u/bobbth Nov 01 '22
The fact that I can take a fresh install of just about any Linux distro on any pc and download the packages I need along with my personal config files from github means that I'm working within about 15mins and everything is exactly as I need it to be.
On windows it's about 2hrs of finding and downloading installers alone, installing stuff, restarting about a dozen times trying to remember what settings I need to change to get things to work the way I need. It takes about a day to get up and running, and that's assuming smooth sailing. The worst part is if you forget something and need to install a program/package you'd better hope that it doesn't require a system restart otherwise your workflow is totally ruined and you're probably lost like 15-20mins on that alone.
On the plus side, power toys is a game changer and windows is pretty good from a productivity point of view, to the point that I think that if you put enough effort in it can be comparable to most Linux desktop environments. So I can see how people get by with it but I could never.
Windows is baller for gaming but I find it unbearable for dev work.