what OS are you using?

[Inny]

I've been on both sides of the technology universe, so I can speak towards development environments.

Windows: You can't get anything done without a proper IDE (Visual Studio). Windows lacks a good terminal app. cmd.exe is NOT a development environment, it's just an appendage. Powershell is an interesting concept, but same problem. And putty/mingw/cygwin is just lying to yourself because you leave the windows ecosystem when you use them. But with Visual Studio, you've got almost everything you need right where you need it, plus Intellisense for all of the recognized platforms. C# development would be impossible without it, and it really makes Javascript development nice.

Linux/Mac: IDEs exist, but really are a waste of your time. Eclipse, XCode, and QtCreator lack most of the features that Visual Studio has which speed up development time. However good terminal apps and the breadth of the unix tools make up for that, provided you get over the learning curve. For instance, I still have to read the man page for find everytime I want to look for a particular thing. When you learn Vim, then performing most text editing becomes more like a surgery with precise movements to get right to where you want to change code.

I've been away from love for a few months, but now I have a little bit of spare time and find myself gravitating towards writing my lua code on my 15" thinkpad with xubuntu installed on it, rather than my windows8 machine (also a lenovo). But forget any Mono development on the lappy, I'd rather recreate the scene from Event Horizon where the guy's holding out his eyes and saying stuff in Latin.

[Ensayia]

I've been a Windows user basically all my life, but I have to cast my vote for Linux.

About a month ago I decided to make the switch and put Arch on my main machine. The amount of flexibility and customization it provides is like nothing I've ever seen in Windows. I learned version control through git and learned to use vim, and learned how to automate many of the mundane tasks I would do over and over manually. About the only thing I don't use Linux for now is my games, but I still have my Windows drives I can boot up any time I want to play something.

I'm finished with Windows as my main OS, but I will keep it to the side to fulfill my gaming habits.

[Ranguna259]

I'm on windows but once SteamOS releases I'll switch to linux

[jjmafiae]

I'm on windows but once SteamOS releases I'll switch to linux

keep on in mind that steamOS is based on linux, it will be a little bit different from linux

[Ekamu]

Im on Crisca a custom multi-OS made entirely out of paper clips, developed by Naughty Dog. It crash-bandicoots every now and then but I have my Windows 7 to back-up projects.

(lame joke) just thought it would be nice to have an other...if their is an other OS as good as the major 3.

I am eager to switch up to Linux Mint, I've been eyeing Linux for a few years but It does not support the software and games I like at the moment.
One day I hope to completely ditch windows forever... or at least mostly. unfortunately Windows is a trap, you feel like you have the most variety in terms of software and then all the other OS feel incompetent and restrictive which is not true (it might be the opposite) but it feels that way until you switch up.

Its possible on some computers to have two OS.

[Davidobot]

Its possible on some computers to have two OS.

Right on time, Ekamu! I just dual booted my PC to Linux Mint 15. (I'm writing this from that)
I will be still mainly using Windows for game developing, but Linux is nice to have for web deployment and such.

[Ekamu]

also don't forget, its first to get updates from github since git was built off the linux os/kernel.

I've decided I'm going to reboot my laptop with Linux. I have some questions:
for a newbie on Linux is it better to go for Mint ,Ubuntu, Debian or what?
which one has best support for GitHub and LOVE?
and is there a link somewhere that can guide me through all of this, bare in mind I have never rebooted any OS ever! I'm a little bit scared (<~<)
so nothing extremely technical and fast paced since I'll be doing it myself.

[MadByte]

I use Windows 7 to work on projects. I would like to use Ubuntu 13.10 but when using a linux os the performance of LÖVE games and other games is much
slower for some reason

[veethree]

I use Windows 7 to work on projects. I would like to use Ubuntu 13.10 but when using a linux os the performance of LÖVE games and other games is much
slower for some reason

Possibly a driver issue. I'm pretty sure ubuntu is a lighter OS than windows.

[shatterblast]

I use Windows 7 to work on projects. I would like to use Ubuntu 13.10 but when using a linux os the performance of LÖVE games and other games is much
slower for some reason

First of all, you should start with 12.04 because it doesn't require a re-install every 6 months. 13.10 is nice if you want beta-like cutting edge features, but the *.10 releases can sometimes end up unstable, which doesn't reflect well on Linux.

Next, on your speed, make sure your install is x64 and that your video drivers are up to date. If you have an nVidia video card, that might cause trouble. If you have an ATI (AMD) card, then getting the correct driver can be a bit difficult yet rewarding.

Send me a message if you want, and I'll help as I can. On the flip side, you could also try Linux Mint 15 with Cinnamon like jjmafiae. I like Ubuntu though, especially with Gnome.