是否有必要为Linux购买一台相对较高配置的电脑？

Question

我个人很想在Linux下开发，也不是为了折腾，纯粹是因为开发需要经常接触Linux环境。我的开发环境Linux也基本能够满足。

但现在问题来了，很多人都说Linux不需要很高的配置，他们都拿自己快淘汰的机器去运行Linux，是不是Linux做桌面的时候就不需要高配置呢，或者说配置较高的电脑无法在Linux上体会到高配置带来的高体验？

现在很多开发者的macbook都要求16G甚至更高的内存，SSD的硬盘。是不是Linux就不需要这些呢？有人说Linux没什么程序消耗资源，但实际情况是Linux下也有Chrome，也有Firefox，也有Intellij Idea，也有虚拟机要跑跑windows之类的。大家觉得把硬件的钱花在Linux上不值吗？

我不想做纯理论的探讨，欢迎对这个问题有实际体验的同学来回答。

Answer 1

SSD is essential, the rest is optional, i3 has no trouble running xfce, graphics card 730/720 is not a problem.

Answer 2

It depends on the situation.
For ordinary PHP development, j2ee development, python code, C code, etc., an ordinary 4G memory notebook is enough.
To run Android development and supporting emulators, you need at least 8G, and if you want to pursue 16G or above, you need a high CPU, a graphics card that can run under Linux, a foreign VPN, and basic sailing skills.
Big data and distribution are another matter. Either you must have a supporting machine, or your computer must be able to run several virtual machines at the same time.

Don’t pursue hard disk SSD, but try to be as fast as possible, 7200 rpm and above.

It’s best to get yourself a monitor. No matter who is the front-end or the back-end, this is very important.
You can pursue retina screen.

Answer 3

Don’t you think the better the hardware, the more enjoyable it will be? If it is for development, that is, for people who use it to eat and make money, they must allocate it as high as they can afford.

Answer 4

I personally feel that Ubuntu has more lag than Windows 7 with the same hardware.

Windows is awesome.

Answer 5

I don’t know what development you mainly use Linux for. It can be divided into several situations.

If you are doing server development, the default is the command line, and there is no need to open a GUI, which consumes very little system resources.
If you are under Windows, you can run the Linux environment in the cygwin environment.
If you want to play under a more pure Linux, then run a Linux VM, either VMWare or VirtualBox, install a server version of Linux, without XWindow, and you can SSH in at any time after startup.
Now that Docker is so popular, running Docker2Go is also a good choice.

If you need a GUI, you can run a Linux VM with a GUI. Let me share my experience.
My machine is a Lenovo X220 notebook, i5 2.6G, 8G RAM, 512G SSD, Windows 8.1 64-bit, and the configuration is average.
I run VMWare11, run Ubuntu14.10 in it, use Vagrant to run four Fedora VirtualBoxes, and run Kubernetes in each box, and then use it to manage and schedule multiple Dockers to implement multiple FrontEnds running PHP+Redis. Or Redis Master + Redis Slave, these are OK.
The VM is allocated 3.5G of memory, and I didn’t feel stuck during full running. Maybe the SSD is powerful enough.

As for the Ubuntu Desktop I am running on a Dell 990 desktop computer (4G RAM), if the Internet window is opened too much, it will sometimes get stuck.

So, my experience is that large memory + SSD, especially the latter, is very effective in improving performance.

Answer 6

I feel that the desktop environment under Linux is not as good as Windows. Although I am a linuxer, I have to admit this