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Comment by alkonaut | Hacker News Reader

I launch my IDE, and that is a customisable interface created specifically for developers. In my code/debug cycle it launches the desktop app I'm developing, (which is a user interface created specifically for another type of professional).

I agree that ergonimics is important, especially in terms of hardware. For developers, hardware is screens and keyboards, and pointing devices. As for operating systems, window managers etc., I couldn't care less. I basically don't use the OS while developing. I launch one app and that's it.

I'd go so far as to say that if my IDE would run on only one OS, then my professional machine would simply run that OS. And I'd be fine with it. If I'm using XCode today but Visual Studio tomorrow, I'd be happy to switch. The IDE matters, the hardware matters, but the OS not so much.

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> I'd go so far as to say that if my IDE would run on only one OS, then my professional machine would simply run that OS

My workstation is my IDE. Or as close to it as I can make it.

> As for operating systems, window managers etc., I couldn't care less

And we should not have to. So I personally go out of the way to rid my workstation of stuff that is not what I care about.

> My workstation is my IDE. Or as close to it as I can make it.

This is a point I have been making too: everyone has a "DE". Whether you integrate it yourself by tiling a text editor and a shell or two, or if emacs or Xcode does it for you doesn't matter.

What matters is that when you are in your development environment - it's free of distractions and promotes your workflow.

When I launch an IDE, the IDE is now my window manager. I never need to leave it. Just like your OS is your development environment, the equivalent is that my IDE is my "OS" for doing work. And by the analogy that you don't want unrelated crap in your OS - an IDE is often created only as a tool for professional development.

So that's why I don't care if my OS looks cluttered behind my IDE, or if it comes with 100 apps I don't need.

It's exactly as if your development OS was a VM running inside any other OS. When you are developing, you would not care what the host OS was.

This is largely my approach, I very rarely need to leave intellij since it has plugins for everything I use and an integrated terminal, that said I still prefer Linux (xfce via xubuntu) to any off the other OS's when outside the IDE.

I also use the hell out of bash for building and orchestration.

When I'm in an IDE, I still use Dash for documentation (macOS only), an external Git GUI (best selection on macOS) and a Terminal (copy/paste is easier on macOS).

Even if I did it all from the IDE, I'd need a good mail client and a good calendaring app to work in a team. These differ from OS to OS. I love scroll through my IDE with my Magic Trackpad, boom, locked into macOS again.

I've looked into switching operating systems on my professional machine because I spend 95% of my time in IntelliJ, but even then the underlying OS matters more than I thought. Of course, YMMV.

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