Saying Goodbye to Windows Development (Maybe)

Lately, I’ve been feeling a shift in my development workflow. Linux has become my home, and Windows… well, Windows is starting to feel like a foreign country with a complicated visa process.

Linux development processes are refreshingly straightforward. Installing tools, compiling code, managing dependencies—it all just works. There’s a rhythm to it, a simplicity that makes me feel productive and in control.

Windows, on the other hand… it’s a maze. Want to compile something? Sure, just pick between MSYS or MinGW—good luck getting them to cooperate. Then there’s CMake, which seems to have a personal vendetta against your PATH variable. Every time I think I’ve got it sorted, something else breaks, and I find myself lost in a tangle of environment variables and obscure errors.

I’ve realized that I can finally breathe on Linux. Projects build when I expect them to, dependencies are predictable, and I can spend more time coding instead of wrestling my environment.

But there’s a cost. Most of the tools I’ve been meaning to develop for Windows have stalled. My focus has shifted, and Windows development now feels like a bridge too far. Maybe I’ll come back someday. Maybe I won’t. For now, Linux is home, and it’s hard to imagine leaving.

Have you ever felt this tug-of-war between platforms? It’s strange to feel at home somewhere while knowing it means leaving something else behind.