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Most HN readers are developers (who all have unique and specific tastes in their machine setup), and have enough experience with Linux to find it easy to instal

Most HN readers are developers (who all have unique and specific tastes in their machine setup), and have enough experience with Linux to find it easy to install alternative window managers. For "popular adoption", I'm sure the completely standard Ubuntu install is just fine.

jasonkester 12y ago
I sometimes feel like I'm the only developer who doesn't want to spend all his free time fiddling around with his operating system. To me, that's not developing. It's just extra work that's completely orthagonal to building cool software.
- Touche 12y ago
  Customizing your OS to your needs might not be "developing", but it comes from the same place of dissatisfaction with the status quo that is the reason we all develop the things we do. It's just a matter of where that dissatisfaction is, and to what degree it bothers you.
- nine_k 12y ago
  Fiddling? Usually I just copy my configs over to a next box / laptop that happens to become my workstation, and continue nearly where I left. It worked more or less smoothly for last 7 years. Yes, sometimes I do fiddle with my settings to make my experience more comfortable and thus my work more productive. I don't think that spending 5-10 minutes a month on it is such a waste.
- wpietri 12y ago
  Yeah. I used to screw around with that quite a bit. At the time it was fun. Now I'm all about minimum time to productivity. Turns out there are technical terms for the behavior. For OSes, you and I are satisficers: we just want it to be good enough. I used to be a maximizer, where I wanted it to be perfect. Learning to choose which approach to take in a situation has been really great. For example, restaurant menus. I used to be a maximizer, trying to pick the best thing. Eventually I decided agonizing over my choice was a fair bit of stress for little or no gain; it was easy to finish my meal and think, "Damn, maybe I should have gotten that other thing." Now I just skim the menu and go with the first thing that looks good to me.
- nawitus 12y ago
  You can install and configure a suitable operating system in like 4 hours, that's not a lot of time.
- arjunnarayan 12y ago
  No, there's plenty of us who feel that way: I (and most of the people I work with) just use OS X on the desktop, and Linux on servers. This way you get the perfect desktop environment that "just works". The linux boxes never have a window manager installed in the first place.
  - macco 12y ago
    How is OS X more "just works" than a clean Ubuntu install? And both are far from perfect.
    - danoprey 12y ago
      Yeah, I really don't understand why this OSX monopoly on "just works" still persists. A plain old Ubuntu install just works, lots of Linux distros do, but if you want the additional customisation, it's there.
      - cerberusss 12y ago
        Except when you have some graphics card on dual monitors. Or you want your laptop to sleep and wake up. Or when you have some funky WLAN card.
        macco 12y ago
        What has this to do with the desktop environment.

jasonkester 12y ago

I sometimes feel like I'm the only developer who doesn't want to spend all his free time fiddling around with his operating system. To me, that's not developing. It's just extra work that's completely orthagonal to building cool software.

Touche 12y ago
Customizing your OS to your needs might not be "developing", but it comes from the same place of dissatisfaction with the status quo that is the reason we all develop the things we do. It's just a matter of where that dissatisfaction is, and to what degree it bothers you.
nine_k 12y ago
Fiddling? Usually I just copy my configs over to a next box / laptop that happens to become my workstation, and continue nearly where I left. It worked more or less smoothly for last 7 years. Yes, sometimes I do fiddle with my settings to make my experience more comfortable and thus my work more productive. I don't think that spending 5-10 minutes a month on it is such a waste.
wpietri 12y ago
Yeah. I used to screw around with that quite a bit. At the time it was fun. Now I'm all about minimum time to productivity. Turns out there are technical terms for the behavior. For OSes, you and I are satisficers: we just want it to be good enough. I used to be a maximizer, where I wanted it to be perfect. Learning to choose which approach to take in a situation has been really great. For example, restaurant menus. I used to be a maximizer, trying to pick the best thing. Eventually I decided agonizing over my choice was a fair bit of stress for little or no gain; it was easy to finish my meal and think, "Damn, maybe I should have gotten that other thing." Now I just skim the menu and go with the first thing that looks good to me.
nawitus 12y ago
You can install and configure a suitable operating system in like 4 hours, that's not a lot of time.
arjunnarayan 12y ago
No, there's plenty of us who feel that way: I (and most of the people I work with) just use OS X on the desktop, and Linux on servers. This way you get the perfect desktop environment that "just works". The linux boxes never have a window manager installed in the first place.
- macco 12y ago
  How is OS X more "just works" than a clean Ubuntu install? And both are far from perfect.
  - danoprey 12y ago
    Yeah, I really don't understand why this OSX monopoly on "just works" still persists. A plain old Ubuntu install just works, lots of Linux distros do, but if you want the additional customisation, it's there.
    - cerberusss 12y ago
      Except when you have some graphics card on dual monitors. Or you want your laptop to sleep and wake up. Or when you have some funky WLAN card.
      - macco 12y ago
        What has this to do with the desktop environment.