Bye Bye Windows... Hm, Now What?

Ubuntu

You could test drive it with something like:

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows

The just stick it on your existing laptop.

Ubuntu or similar. Ive been using Linux for five years now and can't imagine anything else. Plus, if you're a developer, you really dont have to do anything to get set up. Maybe just install php/mysql.

I was very resistant to apple for years until I had a macbook forced upon me by my last employer. After a couple weeks of pain, I have come to appreciate it. The GUI is still a little too 'candy coated' for my taste, but since under the hood it's really unix -- BSD specifically -- it's pretty well suited to web development.

Also since the shift to intel processors, building your own 'hackintosh' has become considerably less painful than it once was. So you don't need to feel locked into the hardware really. As an example, I have an i7 powered hackintosh with an internal 8TB raid array that I built for video work.

Linux is relatively user friendly these days, but for the front-end part of web dev is can still be a bit problematic as the linux browsers don't necessarily work exactly the same as windows/mac browsers do.. so at a minimum you'll probably still wind up having windows in a VM to test browser stuff, that's a little better suited to mac as you can natively test mac browsers, then test windows and linux browsers in a vm on linux.

Long story short -- yes I made the switch. Like you I used MS from the DOS days (with a little linux sprinkled in), and hated apple.. I think it's unlikely I'll ever switch back, and I still don't even remotely consider myself a 'fan boy' :)

EDIT: As far as linux desktops go, Mint is pretty nice, it's a fork of ubuntu, with different window manager options (unity is kind of gross), it also tends to render fonts and such properly for front end web dev, whereas some of the other distros don't, at least not without some extra effort.

Just to second @willvincent - give Mint a try. It's a nice friendly introduction to Linux. I had a non-techie friend who had a laptop that came with Vista and it took around seven minutes to respond to a double-click on a desktop icon - gave her Mint to try and she was over the moon, everything responded quickly and worked more like Windows than ... Windows ;-)

Actually MS 8 isn't bad, and once you learn some keyboard short cuts its actually more efficient. The search actually works well, and you don't ever have to see the metro screen, though I use it for shortcuts to keep the desktop clean. Little thing most don't know is right click the start button and you get a simple menu with links to old style options like disk manager, control panel etc..

With that said, my issue with Mac is price to hardware value. A Mac Pro is hard to justify the price, I decided to go Mac mini and you definitely notice the 5200 rpm hard drive. 2 minute boot time and sometimes with hard drive heavy apps are really slow, think phpstrom gets laggy at times.

But you get the best of both worlds as far as a decent gui and the Linux power terminal plus a few Mac only apps that are amazing.

Linux is also a great choice but if you dislike Windows because of your start menu, I'll go on a limb and state your not going to like the Linux learning curve.

Now, Windows 10 with Ubuntu's kernel for command line options maybe the boost Windows needs to get devs to come back.

Keep in mind, if you used Vista and hated the constant asking for permission to do things, Linux and OS X actually have you input your password about the same amount.

I haven't tried it myself, but the deepin distro looks absolutely beautiful and user friendly..

@Prez I upgraded my Windows 7 computers to Windows 10 so far things are looking pretty good and the start menu is back regular again. And everything that worked on Windows 7 so far has worked on Windows 10. You can still upgrade free before July 29th that's the cutoff for free upgrade I even downloaded the file I forget what it's called to make an ISO image so I could easily do it on two other computers one I had is in 8.1. You do not boot the ISO you install from the windows environment but the free upgrade on mine it went flawlessly. I even had Office 2003 on my Windows 7 and it still worked after the upgrade perfectly.

@phpMick thanks for the link, I'll definitely test drive it.

@zachleigh don't you have trouble finding drivers for hardware or printers and such? What if you have a 4-5 year old printer?

@willvincent thanks for the info. So far I have been doing a lot of web design work which I'm not super happy about because design is not a strong skills, but even though I'm trying to focus more on programming in the future I still need a few working browsers for testing. The main goal of switching to another OS is to find an OS that is more suitable for development and will hopefully improve my productivity. It's also good to hear there are ways to change the hardware.

@ohffs I've looked at a few videos of Mint 17, it looks like Windows with a skin :) Looks interesting..

@jekinney I'm pretty satisfied with Windows 8.1 but I'm unsure if I want to make the move to Windows 10. Like you mention, one of the reasons I haven't tried Mac yet is the price. I got a pretty decent laptop for ~$1000 but looking at the Mac Book Pros they start at like $2-3000. After running SSD for some years I could never go back to HDD.

@jlrdw have you had Windows 8.1 on your computer? I haven't investigated it much, but from what I've heard/read Windows 10 is filled with spyware and some say you can turn them off and others say you can but not fully. What is your opinion on that and how is Windows 10 for web development compared to Windows 7/8, is there any difference?

@Prez the Humane Society computer had Windows 8 original, we upgraded that to Windows 8.1 it was free and 8.1 is a lot better than Windows 8. I forget the name of it but there's a third party start menu you can download and it is free ViStart or something like that it it's free that gives you a regular start menu.
Yes Windows 8 seems to have some problems but Windows 8.1 has been real smoothly for quite some time now with no problems. I did buy a Dell laptop that came with Windows 8.1 but I never used it as about the same time Windows 10 came out so I upgraded it. I wouldn't listen to spyware rumors and things like that I still trust Windows operating systems. I too used to use the old MS DOS. I programmed dbase 3.
Edit:
@Prez Besides do you really want to become a Mac User?
If you do that next you'll have to get one of those little cars that's meant for a woman to drive and drive around in that. Te-he-he

@jlrdw your "all mac people are stupid, crazy, fanatical, whatever" thing is really getting old.

@jlrdw hahaha, to be honest I never thought I would become a Mac user but lately I've been brushing up on my old skills and I thought I'd look to see if I can also improve my workflow and productivity. Looking around, everyone (including my developer friends) seems to be using Mac and I'm thinking maybe my dislike for Apple products is making me blind and I'm missing out on something great.

I'm pretty satisfied with Windows 8.1 right now, I use XAMPP and Sublime Text 3 and it works well. I'm going to try Homestead soon, maybe next project and see which I like better.

As I mentioned earlier I bought a new laptop just a few months ago so I'm not looking to switch from Windows anytime soon. I would however like to look at what other operating systems have to offer, and if I find one that is worth the switch, I would like to start learning about it and maybe test drive it and in a few months when I do make the switch, I won't be in total shock and I can quickly get to enjoy the new development environment :)

@willvincent I don't believe it was meant as anything bad. As long as there has been Windows, OS X, Android, etc, people on all sides have been throwing jokes at each other for laughs. You can see this behavior in basically everything,.. between gaming consoles, programming languages, sports teams, schools, and so on..

@willvincent that's like saying an Aggie joke is getting old I'm always up for a good Aggie joke. And I only mentioned that to @Prez because of an earlier joke I had told him.

Ubuntu for the win.. try the latest 16.04 LTS.. thats my choice for everything except entertainment

The biggest single problem with Linux is you cannot use Microsoft Access. I will not go through life without Microsoft Access. And please don't mention open Office I tried that.
If you compare Microsoft Access to base in open Office it would be like comparing BB to something the size of a planet.
Microsoft Access is probably the most powerful reporting software in the world. You cannot beat how it does a grouped report.

Linux in general doesn't always play well with new hardware. I know I had issues with amds apu CPUs. Obviously it comes down to driver support, so just be careful and test first with a live usb before trying to install. Even dell laptops, many come with an option or use to to have Ubuntu and thus have special dell drivers. Most manufacturers have there special hardware with Windows only drivers so sometimes you'll have audio and input (track pad) issues where it just won't work period.

Don't get me wrong, I think Ubuntu is amazing but in reality it's not install and go anymore.

Macs are great with great quality, mainly because OS X is desgined to work with the hardware and limited hardware similar to a console or phone (hence why androids are hit and miss depending on the manufacturer). As stated you can buy 2 quality, better performing (hardware and screen size) for the price of one Mac. Though the aluminum cases are beast on a Mac.

Ever have to get your Mac fixed? Good luck, it's expensive and takes forever. Mac store apts are weeks in advance.

Bottom line, pros and cons each way. Add them up and see what works.

As far as spying, every app and time you hit the Internet tracks something. Look at the data google analytics gives you. Search history of users, location, vendor, age etc. huge amounts of data.

@Prez Another point is you could have a good windows machine but still have linux in a VM. Best of two worlds that way.
I don't use a vm, I use bitnami wampstack, Have loved them, and I will get shuned, but I use netbeans for ide.

OS X or GTFO! ;)

best setup is a 13" MacBook Pro and couple external displays of your choice. Buy the newest model MBP you can find on the Apple Refurb store, you'll easily save 15-20% and they're as good as new (including warranties and everything).

That's it, you're done, be happy.

For what it's worth, I can run all native windows software on my mac either in a VM or with parallels, and still run linux in a VM.. You'd be hard pressed to do the same on windows. ;)

That I think is why there has been a notable shift to Macs for development, because it's far easier to test all environments on a single machine.

@willvincent you said

or with parallels

What is that?

@willvincent Hey, any experience with VirtualHostX on a MAC? Specifically Virtual Hosts accessible over Local Network? Does it really need to go outside the LAN to create a unique hostname? Would like more than 1 VHost w/o playing around with VHosts file. Only getting promo support emails from the vendor. Thanks.

@jlrdw Parallels allows you to continue to run those dodgy windows only apps when you upgrade to a Mac ;-)

It basically allows you to run Windows as a VM, in its own window or in coherence mode where each windows app is presented as a standard mac window.

@Prez I havent had a hardware issue with Linux in years. Driver support is generally pretty good. However, I do always check before buying something.

I'd have to recommend a Mac too. I used Windows for years, but about 6 months ago I got a Mac mini and really I wouldn't ever go back. It takes a little time to get used to a different keyboard and the shortcuts, but really once you do the advantages of being on a unix based OS are great. If you get a Mac mini though make sure to get an SSD or buy one after and replace the slow 5400 rpm standard drive.

BTW - I am not double posting. It is a bug in the forum and I can't help it.

@jlrdw technically parallels is a VM, but it runs all the windows apps directly on the mac desktop, and has a bit more seemless integration than things like virtualbox, et al.

@jimmck Never heard of VirtualHostX, no.. But you can make virtual machines accessible across your network with pretty much any VM provider. I could do it with virtualbox for example. The only tricky bit would be if you want them to be accessible by name, in which case you'd need to define the hostnames somewhere on the network that is used as a dns server.. Some routers let you do that.

Basically the process would be to set up port forwarding to your VM, and then on the router, or whatever, configure the hostnames and point them at the right machine/port, then ensure that all machines on the network use that router or whatever as their primary dns server.

@willvincent Thanks! Exactly. I have Verizon Wireless Router and it does not seem to have the needed DNS mapping capability. Not keen on this mapping that VirtualHostX seems to do. Have emailed the author but no response. It seems to setup a domain name externally and you can put that in your hosts file. I would prefer to keep it isolated. Gonna keep digging around.

@zachleigh exactly. Reason I don't dual boot is sound card. Most Intel isn't an issue but like anything have to do some research is all or like I said test with a live usb.

I mean if you have a gtx 770 it will work but extreme overkill as nvida drivers are sub standard.

If you do decide to go with Linux (which I did and I love) DO NOT GET AN AMD processor. Get Intel and Ubuntu and you will love it. All 3 platforms are great if you ask me. I have one AMD/Linux comp for development. And one Windows comp that dual boots to Ubuntu for testing. I plan on getting a Mac next.

Another note about Linux. For development and personal use, its great. There is a learning curve, but once you get over it, its extremely easy to use. However, if you need to create complex Word documents or do a lot of graphics work, it may not be for you. Most Linux word processing suites handle basic compatibility with Microsoft formats fine, but they don't do complex formatting well sometimes. Adobe doesnt port their products to Linux, so no Photoshop, Illustrator etc. There are alternatives like Gimp and Inkscape which are fine for general use, but can't really compare to the Adobe counterparts. (I do really like Inkscape though....)

And about that learning curve. As a web dev, youve probably got some UNIX command line experience already. That should make the curve much easier to get over. And if you dont have much command line experience, then its about time you learned!

Sorry guys for replying so late, didn't get much computer time last couple of days.

Thanks to everyone for your feedback! I got a much better idea now of what OS to try and who knows, maybe the next computer will be a Mac :)

I use Win 10. It is fast has a good overall search function and the startmenu is back.

My testing server has Debian 8 with PHP 7 and mysql or cassandra DB.