Choice of operating system with Web Development in mind

Question

I consider myself fairly versatile when it comes to O/S selection. I have used DOS/Windows PC's all my life, switched my main laptop to Mac two years ago, and have used numerous flavors of Unix/Linux/BSD while studying for my Comp.Sci. degree.

However, as I'm trying to improve my development environment, I'm starting to wonder if I'd be better off scrapping the Macbook for a PC with a different O/S flavor (to support a different set of tools and IDEs).

What O/S do you prefer for (web) development, and why? (prefer answers from people who have real-world experience coding on multiple platforms)

(Note: I am aware of this question discussing client vs. server O/S - what I'm interested is the whole development environment, and not limited to the 'Windows crowd')

Answer 1

You don't need to scrap your Macbook to use different operating systems. Many developers run multiple OSs without giving up the Macbook experience.

Answer 2

It's really going to depend on the type of web development you want to do. If you are doing PHP (or LAMP, Perl, Python, Ruby), then Linux is probably the best way to go. If you are looking at doing .Net development, then Windows would be your best bet. I think if you're on Java, then Windows or Linux would be equally good.

For LAMP development on Linux, you are probably best going with Netbeans or Eclipse for your IDE. Personally I prefer Netbeans, but it depends on which you are more comfortable with. If you want to pay for an IDE, Zend is one of the better options. As far as distros go, any popular distro should be fine. I hear Ubuntu is pretty popular although my personal favourite is Mandriva.

Answer 3

If you're locked into the .Net world, then Windows is really the only choice.

Otherwise, the "big name" web environments (Apache, Tomcat, Spring, Glassfish, Rails, JBoss, Grails, Weblogic, ...) are all commonly deployed on some flavor of *nix. A Linux-based laptop gets you max geek cred; OSX gets you a full-fledged Unix environment with a very polished UI and less do-it-yourself maintenance.

If you're doing Java, then Eclipse, NetBeans, and IntelliJ will run on all of the above (Windows, Linux, Max), so you can choose based on what else you want to have in your environment.

Answer 4

I prefer my Macbook and despise the fact that I have to go to work and use a Windows environment (I keep hitting the ALT key looking for COMMAND!). Ruby and rails development is easier because most of the developers are using OSX and therefore any help you need is tailored for your development environment, it just doesn't work as smoothly or as fast on Windows.

I haven't run into anything I've got in my work environment (Emacs, IntelliJ etc.) that I can't get for Mac and it even looks a whole lot better. Ubuntu even looks better and is a lot more reliable than any Windows system I've ever used.

Answer 5

I got 3 systems,

1. Windows XP, Windows 7 RC, Ubuntu 9.04
2. Windows Vista
3. Mac OS X

Mac OS X would be my choise, since you can get good enivroment to work on. I got Adobe Create Suit and Textmate, they aren't free. Free alternatives GIMP/Inkscape and many free text editors are available for mac.

LINUX is fine but Adobe suit doesn't work on it, you have to use GIMP and Inkscape, obviously they are nowhere near Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Although if you aren't interested in using Adobe CS you can use Ubuntu distro which is easier than other LINUX distro and quiet popular, so you won't have any problem finding solution. Eclipse would be my text editor if I use LINUX.

Windows is another good choise if you are familier with Windows but risk of losing important files which took you hours to develop ;-) , you know its main problem is Virus and spywares. If you can get decent Anti-Virus (like free Avast ect) you can live with it.