Trying to ditch windows

Max_P, 25 days ago

For the work part in particular, you may find that a virtual machine will get the job done pretty well. With modern CPUs there’s basically no overhead, so it’s often easier to just run the OS you need in a VM.

You can just run it in the background, run your .NET and SQL server and stuff, possibly VSCode remote into it. PowerShell over SSH. If you need to run a GUI application, you can just RDP into it. FreeRDP has a cool feature where it can RDP a single application so it pops up as any other app on the host. Works great when you just need the database’s GUI or whatever.

With virtio drivers and everything, it will be essentially as fast as if native. GUI will be slow because of software rendering, but the point is to use it as a server and only use the GUI as necessary, and for server stuff RDP isn’t too bad given it’s basically localhost network.

There’s also the fun but painful world of VFIO and passing through a real GPU into the VM and feeding back the video to the host with Looking Glass. It’s so good you can game on that (anticheat still won’t work though, they don’t like VMs), so if RDP bothers you that’s an option. Although in my experience, Visual Studio is just as slow and buggy natively, so I wouldn’t bother and just RDP.

If you add virtiofs to the mix, in theory you can share the code folder and use VSCode on the host and compile on the guest, or even compile on the host and run on the guest. Or send compile commands to Windows over SSH from VSCode. I have my entire Steam library (and Proton containers) on virtiofs and it works perfectly, so I have to imagine a code project should work nicely as well.

Virtual machines are an awesome tool. There’s also the benefit of keeping all the work stuff in a big isolated container. If you have multiple projects you can make multiple VMs and not worry about one project needing version X and the other version Y of whatever.

jjlinux, 25 days ago

And this is why I didn’t comment. I knew someone had already suggested the VM way. This is the best way to keep your stuff separate from work related.

space_comrade, 24 days ago

I don’t like VMs because I need to allocate memory upfront for it, and considering it’s a Windows VM and depending on the dev work you’re doing on it you might need to give it 10Gb+.

If it’s at all possible for OP I’d recommend getting a separate physical workstation and then just remoting into it with your Linux machine, if you use VSCode the process is pretty much seamless, you use VSCode from your Linux machine normally while all the work is being done on the remote machine.

daisyKutter, 24 days ago

That’s a great idea, can I use the 2 screens of my PC doing that?

space_comrade, 23 days ago

Not sure what you mean exactly. The Windows workstation machine could be accessed remotely from anywhere. I mean sure you’re gonna have to hook it up to a monitor to set it up but after that you shouldn’t have to access it directly, at least not often.

Flaky, 25 days ago

Has Virtiofs matured lately into something that can be used day-to-day? I ask because I think the virtio stuff will be better for Windows virtualisation in the long-term, especially when VMware’s future is not certain, but I heard folder-sharing on Windows guests was pretty bad from Lemmy recently, and a few years ago I tried it and yeah, I have to agree.

nexguy, 24 days ago

Just wanted to add that no one should ever NOT be using a vm as their dev machine.

Enoril, 24 days ago

Exactly what i did. Help also to not mix work and private life by having 2 distinct VM: one with ArchLinux for Gaming/Private apps, one with win10 for work

Max_P, 24 days ago

It’s even nice to subdivide some activities. I have a disposable one for running sketchy stuff, two for gaming (Arch and Windows), a few work ones, a few dev ones.

They’re just so cheap to run these days, I always have one or two running at all times.

isVeryLoud, 19 days ago

You can try JetBrains Rider for .NET, but it’s only natural that you won’t be able to write Windows applications outside of Windows.

I’m personally impartial to JetBrains for my IDEs on Linux, they work really well and are well supported.

helenslunch, 21 days ago

I think there is no Visual Studio for Linux

flathub.org/apps/com.visualstudio.code

flathub.org/apps/com.vscodium.codium

Rogue, 20 days ago

This is Visual Studio Code which is a very different app to Visual Studio

Panda, 24 days ago

I use Jetbrains Rider on Linux which runs just fine. It takes some setting up to install .NET but it didn’t take me too long. Except for pre-release versions, that might take more trial and error.

Overall I’m pretty satisfied with the switch to Linux and I haven’t had any major issues. Not with video games, either. Protondb.com is a good website to see what games do and don’t work on Linux and you may need to add launch options to get specific games to work or switch to a specific version of Proton.

It’s up to you to decide if it’s worth it for you or not. You could try a dual boot setup first.

eluvatar, 22 days ago

Rider gang show up

domi, 24 days ago

I’m also a C# dev and I have been using Linux for years now.

VS Code was pretty much unusable in the beginning when compared to VS. However, nowadays VS Code is very capable at syntax highlighting and debugging.

There is no support for WPF and Forms applications on Linux, since I mostly write web and console applications I don’t mind running a Windows VM for those few exceptions. There is also no support for Maui applications but as things are going right now it seems to not be going anywhere anyway.

Since we mostly deploy to Linux servers nowadays anyway it has actually made my job easier since I can run Docker without having to fiddle with it every day like I had to on Windows.

teawrecks, 24 days ago

Even if you can run your .net code on linux, it’s better for you to run on the actual platform you’ll be deploying to. You could dual boot just for work (that’s what I do) or try running in a VM, but I assume your work is hard enough without generating new friction.

utopiah, 24 days ago

I never thought I’d say this but… in your case, for work at least I would actually stick to Windows! It looks like most of your tools are from Microsoft and that the environment they will normally run on is Windows. It seems most pragmatic to stay there.

For gaming though (as I’ve argue few times and can be seen from my history), Proton works well, even for AAA games, unsupported (officially) games and VR. ProtonDB helps you to quickly assess if that’s the case for your specific games.

Anyway, what I would suggest though is step back, i.e WHY do you want to step away from Windows. If it’s technical then “just” dual boot and properly separating fun from work might be sufficient. If it’s more moral and ethical, then earning money from tools that are NOT from Microsoft to gradually decouple, remove the dependency on it, seems like the “right” thing to do.

Diffuser5593, 24 days ago

I ran a dual boot on my work laptop with Windows and Mint until I was fully ready to transition over to Linux. Might be worth doing the same? Recently got rid of the Windows boot and am now fully on Linux for work development. However, I’m not in the web development space so can’t comment on that. I use CLion, Intellij, and PyCharm for work.

My home pc is fully Linux running Fedora which I use for gaming, no issues there running Proton through Steam. Have Lutris setup as well for League Of Legends, although that’ll be disappearing once Vanguard is integrated.

neomachino, 24 days ago

You could always just boot up a windows VM and set up a shared folder to code on Linux/test on windows if your application has issues running on Linux.

flashgnash, 24 days ago

I am a dotnet dev using Linux as my primary OS. Dotnet core fully works on Linux now, there’s a native Linux dotnet cli that works almost identically to the windows one

SQL server I think has been able to run on Linux for a while anyway

You’ll have to learn to live without full fat visual studio but honestly you’re better without it anyway it just stops you from learning the stuff you really ought to know by doing it all for you

VSCode is a pretty good replacement and actually nicer to use if you know what you’re doing, neovim if you want to end up spending all your time configuring it (said as a neovim user)

Gaming is absolutely not an issue unless you play certain competitive games with weird anticheat (valorant for example)

As others have mentioned, docker and VMs exist if you have a reasonably powerful machine so nothing should be completely inaccessible to you anyway, on the windows machine I have to use at work I ironically do most of my dotnet dev on a Linux VM anyway

floofloof, 24 days ago

There’s also JetBrains Rider for a .NET IDE that runs on Linux.

flashgnash, 24 days ago

True, not free though and I think IDEs like visual studio proper abstract things away that you should probably have some understanding of

possiblylinux127, 24 days ago

You can run a Windows VM for anything Windows.

Swarfega, 24 days ago

Get a second drive and install Linux on it. You can then flick between the two on boot. I’ve done this and now booting into Arch more than Windows. I’ll still boot into Windows for reasons but Arch is my main OS now.

possiblylinux127, 24 days ago

Better to use virtualization for privacy, stability and convenience

Swarfega, 24 days ago

I ran Linux in VirtualBox for years but it’s just not the same as running from bare metal. The step to bare metal is the key to actually starting to make the move to Linux for me

possiblylinux127, 24 days ago

Run Windows in KVM

Swarfega, 24 days ago

My kids plays Roblox, it doesn’t run as well as it does bare metal

possiblylinux127, 24 days ago

Did you install the vfio drivers from the Fedora project?

Metju, 24 days ago

Fellow .NET dev here, switched to Linux for side-gigs recently.

In general, the experience is a lot better than Windows / WSL. Some general remarks on the setup (relevant mostly for Debian-based distros, so YMMV):

• Rider / VSCode suggestion is spot on; go with the former if you have cash to spare and you’re fine with snaps, otherwise - DevKit can do DevKit things (with the only problem here being lack of .dcproj support in VSCode; can be ignored with proper integration test setup).
• Containerization of DBMS: by all means, go for it if you have the resources to spare.
• Possible gotchas:
  • If you’re going to use MS apt feed for .NET runtime / SDK, set up apt preferences to point to their feed for dotnet packages. Otherwise, you’re in for a bad time when running updates.
  • Docker: personally, I recommend Rancher Desktop for this purpose, as Docker Desktop on Windows left a bad taste in my mouth. If you’re fine with the latter, it’s up to your own preferences then.
  • Test containers: if you do use it with anything else than standard, bare-bones Docker setup, you’ll need a custom config; stumbled upon that the first time I tried running integration tests.

dan, 24 days ago

don’t know if I can run & debug .net 8 applications on a linux machine

The .NET SDK is cross-platform. Try install it then run dotnet run in the same directory as your project file (.csproj).

Most .NET APIs are cross-platform, but there’s a few that still only work on Windows, and it’s also possible to write code that only works on Windows, like using P/Invoke to call a Win32 API.

om1k, 25 days ago

VSCode or JetBrains Rider are good options for .net development, both available on Linux.