What you're developing makes a big difference. If you're making games and writing C++ in UE, or used to working with blueprints, or developing for graphics, then trying to do the same in Linux will be a horrible experience. This is why people don't tend to use Linux to write games. However, if you're developing for the cloud or writing applications or anything involving servers and scale (arguably the majority of software being developed today), then the exact opposite is true.
I think the reason that this post exists is that, sadly, software devs don't always get to choose their OS. Many (lazy, old-fashioned) organisations with huge managed fleets of CrowdStrike-infected Windows laptops still insist on shipping the same machines to their software teams as they do to their salespeople, forcing the former to figure out how to get stuff built while effectively working in shackles. I think that's who this post is targeted at and the problem it tries to solve.
I disagree with you that cross-platform is a solved and relatively simple problem. That may be the case for UIs/desktop apps/games, but it certainly isn't for cloud-relevant software.
I 'violently and disrespectfully disagree' that somehow developers are trying to 'force everything to behave The Linux Way'. The software that powers the modern world and that we end up talking about on here most of the time, simply doesn't run on Windows, it runs on Linux. Windows may be a very popular desktop OS, but it is also a huge steaming pile of candy-crushed turd, and I don't think 'simply learning Windows and doing things the native Windows way' is advice I would ever give anyone, ever.
_Unless_ you're a game dev.
On that point, I do think this post is titled badly, and suffers a bit from the HN bias that 'development' always means clouds and data and scale. Maybe a better title, something like 'coercing Windows into building software that it isn't itself capable of running in production' would have saved you a few clicks.
If you don’t need to run/build on Windows, then don’t use Windows!
But if you do need run/build on Windows it’s much better to do things The Windows Way, imho. Trying to force Windows to behave like Linux is a terrible, terrible idea in my experience.
I think the reason that this post exists is that, sadly, software devs don't always get to choose their OS. Many (lazy, old-fashioned) organisations with huge managed fleets of CrowdStrike-infected Windows laptops still insist on shipping the same machines to their software teams as they do to their salespeople, forcing the former to figure out how to get stuff built while effectively working in shackles. I think that's who this post is targeted at and the problem it tries to solve.
I disagree with you that cross-platform is a solved and relatively simple problem. That may be the case for UIs/desktop apps/games, but it certainly isn't for cloud-relevant software.
I 'violently and disrespectfully disagree' that somehow developers are trying to 'force everything to behave The Linux Way'. The software that powers the modern world and that we end up talking about on here most of the time, simply doesn't run on Windows, it runs on Linux. Windows may be a very popular desktop OS, but it is also a huge steaming pile of candy-crushed turd, and I don't think 'simply learning Windows and doing things the native Windows way' is advice I would ever give anyone, ever.
_Unless_ you're a game dev.
On that point, I do think this post is titled badly, and suffers a bit from the HN bias that 'development' always means clouds and data and scale. Maybe a better title, something like 'coercing Windows into building software that it isn't itself capable of running in production' would have saved you a few clicks.