I basically used the container like a VM. Configured it with all the tools I normally use (e.g. OhMyZsh, etc) and had it constantly running in the background. I would use VS Code as a front end and work directly inside the container (cloning repos and pushing commits).
It had its quirks but the main benefit was that my local machine was no longer a snowflake. I could easily move to any machine, pull my "development" image, spin up the container and everything was exactly as I liked it.
The container approach is lighter weight, and I found it easier to manage the configuration via Dockerfiles. Managing a full VM with the OS install is a bit of a pain.
That being said, I worked at an organization that did the VM approach using Vagrant. It wasn't as nice as the VS Code/Docker approach, but the results were similar.
On OSX I only had problems with GUI running in docker. I was used to sharing X between linux host and docker container also running linux.
For some projects, the only working solution I found was to run a VNC server in docker. Specific example: in a docker container, run a GUI built with Kivy and view the window on the OSX host. If anyone manages to do this without VNC, I'd like to know how!
I've been running Docker on Windows since Windows 10 17.09 or roughly the time WSL 1 came around. That's since October 2017.
It's been really fast and stable here and now with WSL 2 it's even better.
There hasn't been a single Flask, Rails, Phoenix or Webpack related project I've developed in the last 3+ years where I felt like Docker was slowing me down[0]. I'm using a desktop workstation with parts from 2014 too (i5 3.2ghz, 16gb of memory and a 1st gen SSD). About a month ago I made a video showing what the dev experience is like with this hardware while using Docker[1].
Code changes happen nearly instantly, live reloading works and even Webpack happily compiles down 100s of KBs of CSS and JS in ~200ms (which could further be improved by using Webpack cache).
[0]: The only exception to this is invalidating cached Docker layers when you install new dependencies. This experience kind of sucks, but fortunately this doesn't happen often since most changes are related to code changes not dependency changes.
[1]: https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/for-the-time-being-16gb-of-ra...
The Windows solution is the equivalent of Smart Hulk figuring out time travel.
I'm not saying it's not good, because it is.
In my experience, Docker on Windows with WSL 2[1] has been pretty snappy.
This solution of VSCode + Docker containers seems to sidestep the whole WSL issue as WSL is no longer necessary for development if you’re containerizing everything anyway. While, I must admit, I like the idea of a project having the same steps for all users regardless of platform (to each his own), I don’t believe the majority of people would like to ditch their IDE of choice for the one tool that does this somewhat seamlessly. I’m probably not characterizing this well as I’m new to the workflow and I like to customize my own terminal workflow - which from what I’ve seen this doesn’t lend well to. Lemme just say it - I like the Linux cli workflow more than Windows and have since the beginning. But that’s just me. I’m sure their are plenty of peeps who feel the opposite. What I don’t like and I feel I share the same annoyance is now having to know both Windows and Linux command line interfaces.
Yes you’ve stepped into a rant, gotcha!
Here’s to hoping Microsoft goes full retard and strips out Windows and just maybe go the Edge route: shifting to putting a pretty face on Linux. That would be awesome, I’d buy Microsoft’s distro, frickin base it off Debian and let’s get this show going! Apple ain’t really doing anything special at this point - so your move Satya!
I like this phrase. I would like to borrow it if you don’t mind :)
Well, we don't have to do things this way just because everybody else does... developing "vanilla" Javascript is actually a pleasure especially with tools like Chrome's debugger. In my experience, front-end "frameworks" like Angular and React provide very little value and tons of unnecessary overhead.
I work on linux, but try to onboard windows dev frequently ("windows dev", ikr ;) . The experience is always painful, and despite many efforts from the WSL team to move forward, docker for development on Windows is still barely usable right now ...
Granted I work on Azure and the cost of the vm is not something I have to worry about.
For example, I don't have ruby installed on the remote dev box, but it is installed inside docker on the remote host. I also don't have ruby or docker running locally.
I think all the linting plugins either expect ruby to be available on the remote host, or inside docker, but not this combo... Is there something I'm missing? (disclaimer: only played a bit with VScode, I use vim on the remote box usually).
Yes, it can. https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/containers-advance... talks about setting it up.
A new terminal in vscode is a terminal on the remote.
Only the client GUI is local.
If you want decent IOs, better than an old notebook, Azure is extremely expensive.
Originally I did this because of bad performance and bugs in WSL 1. I hear WSL 2 is better but I already have it all set up and it works great for me so I've just kept it.
Not sure if there's a way around it, but I was sitting down at my desk every morning to find a toasty laptop, lid closed and fans blaring.