Why Linux is better for (most) developers!

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#Linux #code #programming

00:00 Intro
00:42 Sponsor: Get a free issue of Admin Magazine
01:43 Language support & access
03:05 Documentation
04:47 Web Development
05:41 Command Line Tools
07:17 All the IDEs you want
08:09 Linux is available to anyone
09:41 Flexibility
11:34 Limitations
12:52 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux
13:51 Support the channel

Linux works with virtually every programming language. Whether you’re working with PHP, Javascript, C or C++, C#, Ruby, Python, Java, you can write, and execute almost anything. The real advantage is how you can setup and install all you need to start working with any of these languages.

Linux distributions have package managers built-in, and these give you access to anything you need to write in these languages. You don’t need to install a package manager yourself, or hunt for installers to download, and then for the extra libraries and modules you might need. You can install all of them in one fell swoop, either graphically, or with one single command line, which makes it way faster to get started than on any other operating system.

And this ease of access and installation means that it’s also way easier to write documentation and guides to help other people collaborate on your project, and setting up their development environment so they can get started as fast as possible.

You could also just write a bash script, so anyone who starts working on the project can just run that script, and get setup automatically.

For web development, using Linux is also a no brainer. The vast majority of servers you website or webapp will run on in production is using a Linux distro.

When you’re coding your website using Linux, the way you’re setting up your environment, the way you interact with your system, they’re all extremely similar to the OS the website or webapp will actually run on.

Next thing is the command line utilities. Out of the box, these are simply better on Linux than on Windows, or even on macOS, if you haven’t installed something like homebrew and all the tools you want to use.

Linux also has built in support for SSH.

Now, this isn’t necessarily an advantage of Linux over WIndows or macOS, but it’s a solid point nonetheless: most IDEs you’d want to use are on Linux. You get access to all the big ones: VS Code, Android Studio, Eclipse, IntelliJ, Zend, PHStorm, all text editors you might like, the only big one missing might be XCode, which is just on macOS.

Linux also has very high availability. Most distributions are completely free of charge. Linux works beautifully in virtual machines, something that can’t be said of Windows 11, which might require a trip to the registry to bypass the TPM checks and locks MS put in place, or of macOS, which doesn’t just install in a VM.

Linux is also available through WSL, so you can still use bash, and a lot of Linux programs and tools, including graphical ones, on an OS you might be more familiar with, namely, Windows.

Linux offers choice. Whatever language you want to use, on whatever device, there’s a distro optimized for that. And Linux is the only OS that lets you do that with your desktop experience as well. From the choice of desktop environment, to the customization available with themes, extensions, widgets, docks, panels, tiling window managers, and more, you WILL have the exact working environment you prefer, or you’ll build one that suits you.

Linux also won’t force you to update in the middle of your work, and it won’t nag you with ads in its menu or default apps, something that can’t be said of other operating systems. It also won’t make your hardware obsolete by denying it access to the latest OS upgrade.