Ask HN: What is your development setup?

39 points by geekam ↗ HN
I was wondering what do folks use here these days. I am interested in knowing almost everything (from desks, chairs to software) that you use for building your products and achieving your goals. That is, your entire setup.

Also, if you could change one thing, what might that be?

Examples of some areas of input -

* PC/Laptop specs * OS * Major languages * Source version control * Editor(s) (with Plugins) * Servers, if any etc.

88 comments

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4GB of RAM on a 6-core Intel chip; vim (ctrlp, nerdtree, tagbar, YouCompleteMe, syntastic, emmet, floobits, a bunch of other pathogen plugins; @see usevim.com), git, tmux; no windows; npm (Express usually), grunt, bower, Python for miscellaneous scripting.
16Gb Ram, i7 processor, 512GB SSD, Ubuntu 12.04 64 bit, git, sublimetext, nginx, vagrant, grunt, npm (+more)
Asus x201e

2gb ram

dual core celeron

5400 rpm 500gb hdd

xubuntu

emacs

emmet

magit

nginx

erlang

nodejs

6GB ram, i7 processor, 32GB cache ssd, fedora core 19, 24" monitor, 13" monitor, gedit, gcc

Executive chair, L desk

* Macbook Air Late 2013 (13", i7, 8 GB RAM, 128 GB HD + external USB3 HD) * Mac OS, on rare occasions for fun, Plan9 * Emacs, with a relatively large assortment of plugins (specially evil and gnus), occasionally Acme * Mercurial for work, git for personal stuff * Go, JavaScript, C, R, Lisp, Awk, Python, and lately playing with APL * Any chair that supports me and any desktop that is not very high
Computer: 2011 MacBook Pro

OS: OSX Mavericks

Package Manager: brew

SCM: git

Main languages: Ruby, Coffeescript, Clojure (for fun)

Editor: Sublime Text 2, vim for server work

Typeface: Inconsolata-g

Chair: Herman Miller Aeron

I have a feeling that all of these things are extremely common.

Core2Quad 3Ghz Hackintosh + 2x 24inch Dell 1920x1200 + Macbook Air 11

OSX Mavericks, Jetbrains IDE + Sublime Text, git, vagrant, Sourcetree, Chrome/Firefox, SequelPro, Dropbox, Google Drive/Mail

32 GB RAM, i7, 160 GB SSD plus many TB of spinning disks, dual 22" screens. Ubuntu 13.04 with i3wm, a low profile keyboard with a touchpad in front (Logitech K310 and T650). PHP, Javascript, Java, Go. Git. Vim with solarized.vim. Digital Ocean, Linode, AWS.
Refurbished 8Gb i7 Dell, Ubuntu, PHP, git, vim. AWS

If I could change one thing I would probably move to an IDE that does everything for you, however that is a toolset to learn and pay for.

4GB ram, i5 CPU, 120GB SSD, 15" + 19" monitors with Ubuntu 12.04

Python (and XML, alas)

Bazaar, Eclipse with PyDev, Vim. Awesome as a WM. Google Apps for chat, email and calendar. rxvt-unicode as the terminal, zsh as the shell.

Servers: Ubuntu 12.04, Nginx, custom Python app server, Passenger for a third-party Rails app. Ansible for deployment, Upstart for process management.

Oh, indispensable: redshift[1], particularly in the winter.

[1] http://jonls.dk/redshift/

Redshift is wonderful. Came from OS X and couldn't get f.lux to properly work on Ubuntu 13.10 in the first few days and Redshift was what saved me from switching back. Once you live with it, you can't live without it.
lenovo t520

i7-2640M CPU @ 2.80GHz

256SSD

8 gb ram

ubuntu 12.04 LTS

Python Python

Git

Vim

apache

postgres

Eventually, I hope to purchase an adjustable standing desk

MAC Pro with OSx Mavericks, 8GB RAM, 500GB Sublime Text, Nginx, Docker, node.js/meteor.js
13" Macbook pro 4gb ram/256 SSD, usually with 24 inch LCD attached. Eclipse for Java/Android. XCode for iOS. Sublime Text for everything else (Python mostly).
Work: Macbook Pro, 15" retina, 2.7Ghz i7, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD. Home: i7 3770k@4ghz, 16GB RAM, 2x GTX 670, 512GB SSD, 7TB hdd

Monitors: 2x 27" Dell IPS for work and 1x 24" TN, 2x 17" at home.

OS: Everything.

Keyboard: Kinesis Advantage Pro at work, Ducky Shine I at home.

SVC: git. :)

Editors: vim, with my vim config found here: https://github.com/wridgers/vimto

Env: Virtual machines (VirtualBox) managed by Vagrant and Chef.

So you have a PC at home? Those Dell LED monitors are really nice.
Yup. I tend to use my home PC for gaming and development on personal projects.
Also, one of those 27" Dell monitors is in portrait and the other landscape. Perfect for coding. Love them!
hp Elitebook 8540w || i7 || 16 GB ram || 2 SSD 256 || Arch/ ubuntu / windows 8 || python, ruby, javascript, npm || git, vim and sublime,
ThinkPad X230 * Ubuntu * Python, Java, JavaScript * git * VIM, Android Studio
Go the rMBP page. Max out all the settings. Buy that. Keep for a few years. Repeat.

Runs anything, has a high resale value, and can drive tons of external displays

Asus Zenbook UX31A (i7, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD), FreeBSD 9.2, C/Python/Java, svn, vim/Eclipse (no plugins)

I'm a dwm user. I usually have tmux with two sessions side-by-side in one dwm window and Eclipse in another dwm window (if I'm doing something Java related that day) and chrome in another dwm window.

I like the Zenbook.

I was just looking at Asus Zenbook UX31A comparing it to MacBook Pro. It is a nice machine and practically half the weight of MBP.

I have no idea what "dwm" is, though.

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MacBookPro 13" Retina. 16Gb RAM. 1GB SSD. 2.8Ghz i7 IntelliJ IDEA. Sublime Text. VMWare Fusion. Git.
16GB RAM, i7 CPU, SSD MacBook Pro, monitor+mouse+ketboard at the office Java Git Eclipse(Maven, Android, Checkstyle) DigitalOcean
I5 , 8G RAM, 120SSD + 3TB HDD Win 8.1 plus VMs (Ubuntu, Arch) C#, PHP, Javascript, Java Git Notepad++ 2 local raspberry Pis
Hardware: i5 + 32 GB of RAM and SSD drive. 24" monitor

IDE: Vim, bash, tmux; I have started using Qt Creator when I do Qt projects and I actually like it.

Production: traditionally AWS but experimenting with Digital Ocean.

Major languages: Python, C, and JavaScript (some C++ with Qt) but also experimenting with Go, D, and Dart

PC, self assembled, GTX-780, core i7, 8gb ram, ssd

OS: Ubuntu 13.04

SVC: git/hg

Editor: vim on a terminal, dark background picture, alpha blended text.

Plugins: syntax highlighting for glsl and coffeescript

Custom 'ultraquiet' box with: 32GB, i7, SSD as primary/active projects disk, backups/cold storage on spinning raid 1, key things backing to cloud, plus external drive for cold backups.

Monitors: 2x24" IPS dells vertical, with 30" dell IPS horizontal in center.

And of course a Das Keyboard for the hands and a HM Aeron rescued for $175 from a dead '99 internet startup!

I found this setup to be perfect for two-up windows of code plus email/browser for reference, plus output of what im doing.

Most of time is spent in python/web. Also lots of manual (excel) data analysis, visual studio, and db-related things.

For travel, an old-ish 11" MBA, which I absolutely love.

Aside from the monitors, the setup is actually a lot cheaper than one might think - e.g. raided HHDs, video card, etc are all reused from old machines, 24" monitors are 7 and 4 years old, respectively, etc.

>>Monitors: 2x24" IPS dells vertical, with 30" dell IPS horizontal in center.

This setup requires a huge desk or system to hold it, doesn't it?

Actually, its all sitting on top of a 46"x23" inch crappy IKEA VITA desk. Stands for side monitors hang off the desk by about an inch on each side but its not bad at all :) A better desk is definitely something I've got in planning stages...
Replying to myself, but for those who haven't tried Python Tools for Visual Studio - http://pytools.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=PTVS%20Installati... - take a hard look at it. Once you get it working (which is a bit annoying with flask), its a beauty for debugging complex object mutation/state problems, etc
Thanks for mentioning the "Python Tools for Visual Studio". We are working to establish Django+Python environments and needed suggestions for good IDE's since majority of the devs are on Windows.

How do you compare Python Tools for Visual Studio to PyCharm?

We piloted PyCharm at work (500+ python devs) but found VS to be an easier ide to write specialized extensions for - e.g. custom source control, workflow tools, etc.

Nothing beats the quickness of sublimetext, but when you're hunting after more complex gremlins or doing remote process debugging, a good IDE is key.

I also met PTVS guys at last PyCon and they are very approachable.

i7 3770K, 16GB RAM, 120GB SSD, few TB of storage Hackintosh. OS X Mavericks. 30" Apple (2560x1600) + 2x24" (1920x1200). Java, Python, PHP, JavaScript. Git. IntelliJ, Sublime Text. Debian server. Also a 15" MacBook Pro.