Dear friend ,
If ever you have given me that look or told me that i was crap because i used linux for my computer unlike you , here is an explanation for you.
I started using linux (opensuse → ubuntu → archlinux) at home after a year of windows , for three years. After a month out of college , i started off as a ruby on rails developer. The computer i got at work had windows XP installed , i learnt ruby and rails on it . I was uncomfortable , but it was ok , there was no virus , so it was not choking to use windows . Besides i did not want to be given that “why-are-you-wearing-your-underwear-over-your-pants” look from my team mates.
Then i started getting sick of windows again. This time it was not the virus. It was the command line:
- It had no tab completion
- It had no grep
- I was not good browsing through the windows directory structure
- You had to type
ruby script/serverwhen back home in my bash i just needed to typescript/server - I could not detach the mongrel/webrick instance , one windows was always to be open for server
- You could not tab-complete at the rails console
- irb felt ugly
- There was no
psand notop - Passenger wouldn’t run nicely in windows (back then this was not a big deal as i did not know what passenger was)
I was fed up , windows was not meant for development , not for me atleast.
Most of the rails guys used mac , I couldn’t — I had only a PC and i had a general dislike for mac. Somebody already sick of cmd had installed console^2 , but it did not help much.
Finally i made my decision , i now use ubuntu 10.04 + netbeans for ruby on rails development.
And above all i got a kalashnikov instead of a stick , i got a decent *nix terminal. I am a happier developer.
What i know now is , the best OS is where you can make the best use of your computer . For many it is windows , for some it is mac . But for me , it is definitely GNU/linux. <3