! exactly dev

I'd ditched Windows and spent a while exploring the Linux ecosystem for content creation. And I have to say, it was not a nice experience.

As much as I respect the Linux mantra of "free as in freedom" and "you need to roll up your sleeves and figure out stuff on your own", it just isn't good enough for non-dev work. Sorry guys, but I need software that gets out of my way and at least does what it's supposed to do. I can't stand a horrible UI or delays and random crashes, which is exactly what happens with most things under Linux.

To replace my Windows workflow I used the following:
1. Windows -> elementaryOS (because Debian/Ubuntu repositories seem to have the best software support, and elementaryOS is the least horrible looking thing that supports that) and then Arch, because, well, Arch.
2. Blender + Maya -> Blender + Maya on Linux.
3. Reaper + FL Studio -> Ardour + LMMS.
4. Photoshop -> GIMP + Krita + Inkscape.
5. ZBrush -> nothing :(

As you can see, my use cases are pretty much all over the spectrum.

Firstly, installing and configuring stuff. A pleasure on Windows, an absolute pain on Linux. Everything just worked on Windows, I had to wrestle with library versions and patches and unstable audio layers (Linux audio just sucks, except for JACK) on Linux.

Out of these, Blender and Maya were the best experience. But even then, both would suffer from random crashes that just didn't happen on Windows.
Ardour is actually really nice when it works. Its use of JACK for routing makes it really really flexible, but it just isn't stable enough to depend on. LMMS is utter crap. I'm sorry, but I just hate the UI. Can't stand it.
GIMP, Krita, and Inkscape can't beat Photoshop, even when you consider them together. Adobe software workflow is just so much better and more intuitive.
Blender 3D sculpting is not bad, but it's nowhere as good as ZBrush.

Also, if you're a C++ dev like me, nothing beats Visual Studio 2017. Nothing. That IDE just blows everything else out of the water. Even VSCode. And it's not slow at all, it handled a fairly large project (PBRTv3) just fine on my Windows development VM. Yes, a VM.

So...I ditched Linux and went back to Windows, but I keep Linux as a VM for when I actually want to mess with Blender or Ardour. Or some dev stuff which Windows sucks at (which is becoming less frequent because of WSL).

Out of all the above, the only one I'd consider ready for production use would be Blender. Developers of open source software, please learn from Blender. Kickass UI and user friendly operation is extremely important, you can't make a random window with GTK buttons and text boxes and arcane config files and expect people to use it for serious work.

Also, Windows beats Linux hands down as an everyday OS. It's always been rock solid, if you take care of it properly (and that goes for any OS). Updates hardly take any time because I run it on a SSD. As for all the advertising and marketing bullshit, you can block a large amount of stuff. And for what can't be blocked, well, I just have to live with it, because the alternative is compromising on my creative output, which is too much for me.

I still run Linux on my server, though. And on my embedded devices (Pi, BeagleBone, etc.). It absolutely rocks there.

I realize that Linux software is not going to improve unless we do something about it, so I'll be contributing fixes and code (the joys of being a C++ dev, yay). Still, I feel that the platform and software as a whole is just not mature enough.

I miss when I was a junior sometimes. Just hammer out some code and go home at 5pm...

Main company: 3 juniors and me
3 daughter companies (acquired in the past 2 years)

CEO: "I want to make the best brandportal in the Netherlands."

Our main webshop: held together with ducttape and prayers, no brand management tools
Daughter companies got their own webshops.

There is no technical leader in the company.

We're migrating to another ERP somewhere this year and these airheads can't decide whether to keep existing products or not, let alone anything substential.
They want to outsource the connection between the shop and the ERP, despite that being the current situation and going horrible, but because in the new ERP some things cant be done we are introducing yet another management pane. Yay!

No sensible roadmap, got shot down when I asked being interim techlead/software/solution architect until we find someone...

My current manager literally dropped all her responsibilities onto a PM who doesnt know what the fuck to do either.

I'm sitting here pulling through because it'd look bad on my cv to quit another company so soon again despite the company having no future nor growth opportunities for me.

I seeth everyday, yet know if I drop out they'll have to crawl back to the external software dev company we inherited the shitshow from. Because you just need a few devs to have a dev team right?!

CEO actively boast about us saying they told her that it can't be done while our product crumbles bit by bit from architectural problems. It wasnt even designed as an webshop let alone a brand management tool..

One of these days I'll just go into consulting, it'll be just as soul crushing but atleast I get to keep a slightly larger slice of the pie and be able to say no to shit customers sometimes.