The right tool for the right person, for the right project.

During the last year (2020) i transitioned between 3 operating systems, and 3 notebooks. Coming from my own Thinkpad with installed Ubuntu into a project where the whole team worked on Windows or a MacOS system and i got a provided Thinkpad with Windows pre-installed from the client.

Later that year i got into a project where i was free to choose my working environment. And i started with the Thinkpad / Windows setup again because i learned that this also work great during the previous project. And switched later to a Macbook.

So, why do i tell you people this and why should it be interesting for you anyway?

Well, for once, software development is not solely bound to writing code. And i think a good software developer, similar to e.g. a carpenter, should not only know its source material, but also the tools to work with.

Like exploring the world to get a wider view of the world, its people, cultures, heritages it is also importing to have an open mind in the section of software development. And explore other approaches as the one you a comfortable with.

This sounds so clear to you and you still ask yourself why the fuck i write about this?

Because, funny thing, even the best of us are not this open as you think they are.

In my previous project i had again to explain myself to great and very intelligent co-workers why i choose the windows operating system for my workstation at this time.

The background for this discussion was that our project was based on a Python / Django / Docker stack. And the whole team was using either a Linux or MacOS system. And there was some prejudice that using a Windows system is causing more trouble than good for the team. Like a black sheep in the herd

I tried to explain it as open minded as possible.

That with the current state of of Windows development (using WSL, Docker for Windows) our stack worked also out of the box and without Problems.

That the combination of Ubuntu on WSL, Windows Docker + WSL, works absolutely great. And is also enough for the size of our to be developed product.

That there was of course issues during the daily work, but which does not bother the product, team or working environment and is solely bound to my working environment.

Issues like:

• Jest tests are slightly slower then on an native Linux or MacOS system
• Cypress only works on the Windows host directly
• The git hooks that we used are not useable, because i used a comfortable Windows Client (Fork) for interacting with git

That the python setup works on WSL as fine as on a pure Ubuntu system.

It took a couple of days to convince the otherwise very open team, that our development setup does not solely work great in the environment they are know and comfortable with, but also work in the current state of the “dark side”. The Windows side.

The switch later that year to an MacBook was not (only) based on the previously mentioned issues but more a question of performance.

The current MacBook 13" has newer hardware and way more memory, then most of the ultrabooks i know of (besides the dell xps series ;).