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Can anyone tell me what OS Ryan Dahl uses as his main? I've seen him using a Mac in his demos but I also heard him say Mac is sh*t.

I'm curious what OS he, as the creator of Node.js, uses since that is likely the easiest to use for Node.js development.

And just in case no one knows, perhaps just tell me what OS is recommended for Node.js development.

Michael Minton
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    Ryan also says JavaScript is *** and http is ***. I wouldn't read too much into it. – generalhenry Apr 27 '11 at 01:51
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    Some of the information on windows here is outdated. Windows installation is a piece of cake now (.msi installer). Alternatively, you can develop in Cloud9 on windows as easily as you could on any other platform. – Jim Burger Feb 12 '12 at 04:52
  • Agreed - I wouldn't host it on Windows, but with their Azure installer and tutorials, MS has done a good job of getting the node-curious coding quickly. Even if you won't use A$ure, the cloud storage emulator is a nice extra to play with. – Webveloper May 20 '12 at 21:29
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    He sure might be using SmartOS on production. SmartOS is proprietory OS of Joyent, those are the people who put money into building nodejs. – Juzer Ali Jan 22 '13 at 15:17
  • @JuzerAli SmartOS is forked from Solaris. So I guess the base OS for Node.js production OS should be Solaris? – tonga May 21 '15 at 14:17

4 Answers4

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I'm curious what OS he, as the creator of Node.js, uses since that is likely the easiest to use for Node.js development.

OS he uses is likely to be the best for him and his preference. You shouldn't be influenced by this because you may find other systems/IDEs/editors much better suited for you and your workflow compared to what Ryan Dahl is using. For example Ryan is often using Vi (or Vim?) editor which is really powerful tool, but too "hardcore" for many (or I would say majority of) developers.

tell me what OS is recommended for Node.js development

Linux based systems (because you rather shouldn't vary too much from targeted production system - the least is the difference the less problems you may encounter). You can use any kind of operating system for development and still have all the codez located on target machine where you are running node.js programs. For example on Windows you can use WinSCP as file manager, Notepad++ as code editor and putty for remote connection to your Linux system.

yojimbo87
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Windows is a perfectly fine system to both develop node applications as well as to deploy them. Microsoft partnered with Joyent to help them port the code and the Windows Azure cloud hosting environment supports Node.js now. All of the npm packages I have used have had not problems running on Windows.

All of the node apps I have written run just as well on my Windows laptop, Macbook Air, and on Cloud9 without any problems. At this point, just pick whatever environment you are most comfortable working in!

Timothy Strimple
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  • That's distinct from cygwin or msys though, which seems to be what he was referring to by 'platform.' – Timothy Meade Feb 11 '12 at 07:44
  • Just wanted to chime in here. Using Git Bash @ http://git-scm.com/downloads in Windows I find I do most everything at least as well as when I work on my Mac. My biggest complaint is that Foreman for heroku I was unable to get working in Windows. I use Linux VM for my django dev.. Everything else is fine on windows! – Yablargo Oct 24 '13 at 12:59
  • I develop in Linux with node and Webstorm as IDE and the best part is the deployment process since I'm using Linux servers. Tried a couple of times with Mac OS but I just don't feel confortable at all. Haven't tried yet on windows. – coffekid Dec 15 '13 at 03:09
  • The deployment process is likely very similar to what you would do on OSX or Windows. For most of my projects I just use Git or Github deployment and the steps are exactly the same regardless of OS. – Timothy Strimple Dec 16 '13 at 03:41
  • node-gyp on windows is a sad experience. – Alan Mar 04 '14 at 22:28
  • node-gyp is a pretty sad experience pretty much everywhere I've encountered it. – Timothy Strimple Mar 05 '14 at 02:45
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Looking at node's manual, it seems like Unix-based environments are what's best for node. This includes linux, and mac, which had came a long way and is in the process of pampering the crap out of traditional terminal hardcores with stuff like homebrew.

Windows on the other hand is the worst environment for node. Not only there's very little information on how to deploy one on a windows machine, most of the other related technologies that make node such a happy place to work in have quirky windows implementation, if any at all.

In short, there's a far larger community on Unix-based system for node than windows, and considering the amount of tutorials online, it's better that you stick to a Unix based platform.

rjmunro
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Ruben Tan
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I don't know what Ryan's OS of choice is, as my fellow posters i'd put my bet on a Linux-based system using vi(m) as the editor.

If you want to stick to a windows platform, try using VirtualBox as a virtualization software. I use a virtual debian system as my node.js development environment, mounting my Windows directories using VBOX's shared folder functionality. All my git/npm/testing related stuff is done directly on the virtual machine, haven't had any problems so far.

As my code editors, i use Aptana Studio 3 (Eclipse-based) and Cloud9.

Using Windows and MINGW is not really recommended, since node.js will probably never really be stable on that platform.

Helpful readups for VirtualBox/Debian:

schaermu
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