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After 5 years using macOS for software development, I decided to finally give Linux a try through a Parallels Virtual Machine with an ARM version of Ubuntu. In this video, I go through my experience setting everything up, tools I decided to use like i3 and polybar, and my overall thoughts. Hope you enjoy it!

 ⏰ Timestamps
00:00 - Introduction
01:45 - Installing i3
03:22 - Browser, Terminal & CLI Tools
03:57 - Neovim Course Announcement
04:40 - Issues I Encountered
05:50 - Overall Thoughts
07:38 - Outro

Josean Martinez

A Mac developer shares their experience transitioning to Linux for software development by setting up Ubuntu in a virtual machine. The setup includes the i3 tiling window manager, Polybar menu bar, and various terminal tools like Wezterm, Neovim, and Zsh with plugins. While ARM architecture limitations caused some compatibility issues with apps like Spotify, the experience highlighted Linux's superior customization and control compared to macOS. The author plans to continue using Linux for development work and eventually transition to a dedicated x86 machine.

So I Finally Tried Linux (As A Developer)

Moving from macOS to Linux is barely a transition — the ecosystems are close, the tooling is similar, and most dev workflows feel natural on both.
Now, doing the same from Windows to Linux… that’s the real adventure.

Oh no, not spotify incompatibilities! How horrible.

I tried using VMs for windows and Linux on a MBP years ago. I found there were so many compatibility issues with the VM software it was frustrating. I decided to buy a few older laptops and desktops to use as my Windows and Linux machines rather than VMs. I ended up moving from Mac to Zorin OS. The VM experience might be better today. Luckily, Linux works on older hardware well and windows 11 is windows 11. The work I do I don’t need a Mac (not doing iOS, or Mac OS Dev), Weirdly I probably don’t need a windows 11 PC either because I can us Linux based tools for all my needs.

I finally switched over to linux from windows… Its still a pain the ass but it is actually nicer. There have been things I had to apt get for certain things to work or drivers(driving zorin OS) but overall I am happy I switched. Gaming feels a bit quicker on a few games then they did on windows. I actually want to game more on linux then on windows.