Development environment on Windows

Lee

Having been a macOS user for a long time now I never do coding-related projects on anything else. Windows is just something I have never considered. Until now. Really liking some of the Windows-based hardware out there right now in terms of Laptops and Windows has actually been pretty good since 10 came along.

So I want to set up my PC as a test to determine whether I could switch from macOS but I honestly have no idea how to approach it.

On macOS I have the command line and Brew, I can do everything in the terminal, Nginx/Apache, MySQL, PHP and so on are all installed. configured via command line, no complications.

Been getting lots of suggestions for how best to set up a development environment on Windows including Docker, Vagrant, WSL and so on.

What's your advice on the best approach to get the most effective development environment where I will use PHP, MySQL, Redis and so on.

gwndilshan1989

Does Redis work on Windows? I dont think so... maybe on Linux subsystem for Windows..
Your best bet is getting either a BSD or a linux. I have developed on all platforms... Unix/Linux works the best

MikeA

Well, Ubuntu subsystem for Windows works pretty well, you can do it all on that, or Fedora, etc. There are some disdavantages but it's Windows..

Lee

@MikeA said: Ubuntu subsystem for Windows works pretty well

Seems to be the popular option, certainly going to require a way of doing everything via Linux rather than Windows itself, that would be the preferred option for consistency when moved to the server.

iandk

I'm using both, macOS and windows.
And I'm currently doing all coding related projects in macOS since it's much more intuitive and easy to maintain.

Lee

Don't mean to get narky, but can we keep to the request before this derails further on Windows vs macOS vs Linux.

@Lee said: What's your advice on the best approach to get the most effective development environment where I will use PHP, MySQL, Redis and so on.

mikho

You could try Visual Studio Code from Microsoft, there are tons of plugins (both good and bad) for setting up your coding environment.
Git push/pull, ssh connections to upload/edit remote files.

The List goes on.

I'm not a coder per se, only dabble a little. I use Visual Studio Code for my work.

seriesn

@Lee said:
Don't mean to get narky, but can we keep to the request before this derails further on Windows vs macOS vs Linux.

@Lee said: What's your advice on the best approach to get the most effective development environment where I will use PHP, MySQL, Redis and so on.

https://www.ampps.com/
Or wamp

Lee

@seriesn said: https://www.ampps.com/
Or wamp

Yeah, no.

seriesn

@Lee said:

@seriesn said: https://www.ampps.com/
Or wamp

Yeah, no.

Lol.

Pssst : get a provider tag

Lee

@seriesn said: Pssst : get a provider tag

Not a provider, as such.

vncoupon

Xampp on windows!

Lee

Thanks, let's get all the silly suggestions out there first.

evnix

Stick to Docker (docker-compose specifically), you can always carry this environment with you onto a Mac or use the same for deployment.
and unlike Mac , Windows has native container support which is pretty useful if you have apps that need decent I/O
(I use a Mac and Docker on Mac can be very sluggish when dealing with larger Databases)

Lee

@evnix said: Stick to Docker (docker-compose specifically), you can always carry this environment with you onto a Mac or use the same for deployment.

Thanks, that is certainly an appealing point around docker, never used it before.

Andrews

Look at this 3 parts guide:
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/take-your-linux-development-experience-in-windows-to-the-next-level-with-wsl-and-visual-studio-code-remote/

btw. WSL2 (next generation, based on real Ubuntu running in VM in the background instead of API translation/emulation) is just around the corner, and all this should work even better (i.e. native Docker daemon support)

Lee

@Andrews said: WSL2 (next generation, based on real Ubuntu running in VM in the background instead of API translation/emulation) is just around the corner

Nice. Will install Docker on the Mac today and start having a look at it to get familiar then switch over to Windows shortly and try it there.

gwndilshan1989

@Lee said:

@Andrews said: WSL2 (next generation, based on real Ubuntu running in VM in the background instead of API translation/emulation) is just around the corner

Nice. Will install Docker on the Mac today and start having a look at it to get familiar then switch over to Windows shortly and try it there.

Are you going to try Windows on Bootcamp?

Lee

@gwndilshan1989 said: Are you going to try Windows on Bootcamp?

No, I have a PC, but it's easier for me to have a look at Docker on Mac first to get familiar with it.

rajprakash

Try VirtualBox to install Windows and try any number of environments/IDEs

evnix

@Lee
This is exactly what you would need, https://laradock.io/

WSS

When I was using Windows for development, I had a hybrid of Cygwin/MingW, and that did about 80% of what I needed. I eventually broke down and just installed Debian (windows died a horrible death and I had no media around). I've been using Linux or FreeBSD as a desktop since then. It's just faster. When I need Windows, I can always kick up a KVM or VirtualBox, but I usually just leave it running as a KVM and then attach to it. Easy-peasy.

FlamingSpaceJunk

@Lee said:
Really liking some of the Windows-based hardware out there right now in terms of Laptops and Windows has actually been pretty good since 10 came along.
What's your advice on the best approach to get the most effective development environment where I will use PHP, MySQL, Redis and so on.

Install a Linux distro. I personally like Fedora.

Not joking. MacOS is workable, but it gets blown out of the water by a Linux or FreeBSD dev machine. Windows is fine for MS stack (C#, IIS, MS SQL) development, but aside from that. Naw. Hard pass.

If you'll post some applications you use, posters can probably point you to equivalents.

Lee

@evnix said:
@Lee
This is exactly what you would need, https://laradock.io/

Oh!

Lee

@FlamingSpaceJunk said: If you'll post some applications you use, posters can probably point you to equivalents.

Not interested in Linux desktop, thanks.

WSS

@Lee said:

@FlamingSpaceJunk said: If you'll post some applications you use, posters can probably point you to equivalents.

Not interested in Linux desktop, thanks.

Then just keep using your Mac? Given another 10 years, Windows might be a bit further along than OSX was in 2002, but you're not going to find a parallel with the UNIX underpinings and most of the software you expect to use. Hell, just get Parallels and then you can get all of the above on one box.

Lee

@WSS said: Then just keep using your Mac?

Well, I know what I want

InceptionHosting

Closed at request of OP.