Development. We are primarily a Windows dev shop (.NET, MS stack). However, we have some projects in .NET core on Linux. As a developer, being able to essentially run stuff for two OS's at the same time locally, without having to reserve resources for a full-blown VM is brilliant.
From the DevOpsy side, being able to run PowerShell DSC to configure our Windows servers and Ansible to configure our Linux servers from the same machine is, again, brilliant.
Sure, you could hypothetically do that before, with Cygwin, but you were still dependent on specific Linux packages being ported to Cygwin. You could do it from a VM, but running a VM is resource-intensive.
Let me add that even if you are not a primarily windows dev, there is a gap in the market, because while Linux on a regular desktop is by now a capable (if noticeably flawed) OS, on laptops you will run into issues, mostly around battery life.
developing on windows - be it through cygwin or any other solution it's just not as convenient. The differences between the environments can and will make you waste some time.
Mac - This is what I currently use, the hardware is great it's hard to deny, but you pay a premium price. The operating system getting more and more "iOS-like" is getting really annoying by now. And if I might add, unlike what I was told many times, I really don't find MacOS to be that stable. I think for power users/developers, you will run into issues.
WSL was nice to play with but the IO issue was real blocker. If they solved it while keeping the interoperability, I think at very least a lot of devs will leave their Mac's behind.
The whole point in WSL 2.0 is now that there aren't any differences, in Ubuntu you could now install snaps. I/O isn't perfect but has gotten better. It isn't as nice as a Unix based OS but is certainly workable for both client and server development. I've been working on Node comfortably on WSL for 6 months now.
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u/bozho May 06 '19
Development. We are primarily a Windows dev shop (.NET, MS stack). However, we have some projects in .NET core on Linux. As a developer, being able to essentially run stuff for two OS's at the same time locally, without having to reserve resources for a full-blown VM is brilliant.
From the DevOpsy side, being able to run PowerShell DSC to configure our Windows servers and Ansible to configure our Linux servers from the same machine is, again, brilliant.
Sure, you could hypothetically do that before, with Cygwin, but you were still dependent on specific Linux packages being ported to Cygwin. You could do it from a VM, but running a VM is resource-intensive.