What OS should I drive? | Hacker News Reader

What OS should I drive?

codefaster.substack.com

9 pointscode-faster21 comments

In short, the article offers: "Which of the three is best? The one you like most. If you like good things, then it's Linux." It is neither wise, nor critical, nor useful.

I don't know how people-pleasing passes as having something to say these days. You can answer any dilemma and every question in life with "the right answer is the one you like". Which completely misses the context of what the dilemma is or why it is.

"Which car should I buy: an indestructible economy box, or a $$$$ luxury lifestyle machine?" "Just buy the one you like".

"And which house?" "The one you like!".

"And what securities should I invest in?" "The ones you like!".

"Exercise or eat a bucket ice cream" "The one you like most!"

Truly an all-purpose advice, always guaranteed to please the one receiving it and do nothing more.

> One with tools more powerful, elegant, and accessible: Linux.

This didn't seem to fit with the rest of the article up to this point. It was all about doing your own thing and what works best for you. Linux being the most powerful, elegant, and accessible is _highly_ dependent on the user and what they are actually trying to do on their computer.

There was also a warning to Arch users not to spend too much time customizing, because it's all about productivity, but ends on recommending the user spend time distro hopping before picking something... right after saying the distro didn't matter that much.

I was very much on board until it took this left turn at the end.

Daily driving and distro hopping, kind of like the dilemma of monogamy and polygamy :)

"accessible" is a particularly interesting word choice here because if you've ever tried to used a screen reader on Linux it's easily the worst experience of the 3 major desktop OSes.

>Now let’s say you’re truly indifferent, then--

--then use the one with the most market share, which is Windows.

The truly indifferent person is not writing articles like this, and they are definitely not posting on Hacker News. In fact, even many non-indifferent people, who nevertheless don't pass a critical threshold of interest, should probably just stick with the defaults.

Am I a strange person because I use all three of them? Win for Gaming, Mac for creativity and Linux for coding. All three by the way support Jetbrains Tools, Sublime Text or nvim etc. So basically when maximizing an app you barely feel the difference except a few shortcuts which you can very often adapt.

I used to work with a Linux laptop daily. Mostly Linux Mint, but tried some other distros as well. I got frustrated with UX issues, problems connecting to external monitors and also sometimes I need to use PowerPoint and Excel.

Now I'm happily running Windows 11 with WSL2.

Your use case says to run Microsoft so the article isn't wrong.

> on Windows because you feel so professional

Pretty funny that this is the first reason the author could think of that someone would choose Windows.

Yes! I thought exactly the same when I read it. I use windows often because I have to (things like coorporate policy) but never because I want to.

The worlds a great and diverse place though- there must be people who like genuinely Windows over Mac or Linux. Any chance one of them is reading this and wants to share what they love about Windows?

I am used to interface

I don't specifically like Windows. But for me, it's the best option of the three. Every Linux distro I've ever tried have had some user experience issues or bugs with the user interface. Also, there's a lot of commercial software like PowerPoint and Excel that are not available for Linux.

I don't like Mac keyboard layout, keyboard shortcuts or window management. I like the hardware but I cannot get over this stuff.

Windows gives me WSL2 so I can basically use Linux with Windows user interface. I've heard a lot of complaints about Windows user experience but personally I like it way more than Mac. It has it's issues but I can live with those. So Windows it is.

this really does not belong on the front page of hn

> One with tools more powerful, elegant, and accessible: Linux.

triple ha

Copilot "tl;dr"

Sent by Copilot: Sure! Here’s a brief summary of the article “Which OS Should I Drive?” from Code Faster:

The article compares different operating systems (OS) for developers, focusing on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It discusses the pros and cons of each OS in terms of performance, compatibility, customization, and cost. The author suggests that the best OS depends on your specific needs and preferences, such as the type of development work you do and your familiarity with the OS.

If you have any specific questions or need more details, feel free to ask!

Mac, with vms for the rest.

> with vms for the rest.

It's called OpenVMS since quite some decades now.

I meant Vm’s, as in the plural of VM.

I use and respect Windows because it's the only operating system that lets me use the computer.

Mac? Maybe if I want my computer to be fashionable room decor and nothing else.

Linux? I'm not a libertarian neckbeard with too much time to waste and a bad case of acne.

BSD? We don't talk about the Berkleys.

> .. lets me use the computer.

...except when it's decided to shove an update down your throat, in which case it won't even let you log in until it's done.

Linux gives you most control of your hardware. Windows gives Microsoft most control of your hardware.

Feel like giving Haiku another shot

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