For a while now I’ve been wanting to learn a lot more about development outside of Windows. I used Java a lot at University but pretty much haven’t touched it since, and my experience of Java was always tainted by the IDE I was using. I really can’t get on with Eclipse despite trying many times. It seems like it’s greatest strength (being ultimately flexible and configurable) is also its Achilles heel; it has an identity crisis: not being brilliant at anything, aand everything is slightly awkward. I’ve since had a play with IntelliJ a few times and enjoy it much more. But that’s not what I want to talk about here…
Visual Studio is absolutely brilliant. Yes, it’s a behemoth, but it does everything it needs to and more. The versions post-2010 are a joy to use (once you’re over those annoying ALL CAPS MENUS). I figured development without an IDE like VS would be really difficult and horrible, yet I see loads of developers walking around with Macs… how could they also develop, regardless of their language, without an IDE like VS?
I thought the best way to approach this was to start with the OS. I needed to learn OSX, get a feel for it and start to use it on a daily basis. The one thing that no-one will ever say about Apple devices though is that they’re cheap, so I thought before taking the plunge and getting myself a MacBook I’d get a cheap second-hand Mac Mini and play with OSX… dip my toes into the world of Apple if you like… so I did. I gave it a bit of an upgrade that I’ll post about another time, but it’s up and running happily now.
I find OSX to be very slick and easy to use. Stuff does simply “just work”. And I’m used it for front-end and Node.js development using SublimeText, which is a really lightweight development environment I also use on Windows. I haven’t missed VS yet… I need to give the OSX/Sublime stack more time though. And I need to be a bit more adventurous with plugins etc. for Sublime; it seems as though VS comes with everything you’ll ever need (except for the phenomenal ReSharper), whereas Sublime expects you to add the stuff you want. I’ll get used to it one day…
So, OSX, I like you. A lot. But I need to spend some more time with you before I decide to jump ship totally from Windows… familiarity is like a cosy blanket…