Linux On The Desktop As A Web Developer: A Practical Guide

A breif look at the tools you need as a web developer in 2020, running Linux on the desktop as a web developer.

OSX is my os of choice, but I’ve always used linux on at least one of my machines (I use Kali a ton, and Centos / Debian on servers every day). I thought I’d visit if my regular work flows work on linux in 2020.

A list of tools:

git
Docker
Vagrant (with VirtualBox)
Firefox
Chrome
VSCode
MySQL workbench
php
python3
pip
composer
npm
vuejs

Preinstalled tools

Python

In most distros you should have Python installed.

Python is installed by default on modern linux distros

Php

In most distros you should have a verison of php installed

Firefox

In most distros you should have Firefox installed too (though you may want to update to the latest version):

Firefox installed by default on Kali Vagrant image

Linux on the desktop as a web developer – Installing missing tools

Git

Out of the box, you should be able to install git with your package manager if its not already installed:

sudo apt install git

Git is installed by default on Kali-rolling

VSCode

https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/setup/linux
install via snap, or via apt

VSCode installed on a fresh linux distro

Docker

https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu/
add the repo, install and run

Docker on a fresh linux install

Vagrant (and VirtualBox)

First, install virtualbox using apt:

sudo apt install virtualbox

Once you have virtualbox installed, install vagrant from https://www.vagrantup.com/

Vagrant on a fresh linux install

Chrome

Chrome isnt installed on most distros, but its very easy to install – just search google for ‘google chrome’ and click the install button on the chrome site

Google Chrome running on a fresh install of linux

MySQL Workbench

Head to the mysql website and download the latest versoin of workbench:
you can download here

Composer

Follow the usual install instructions here

Pip

Pip usually has a package available for the major distros:

sudo apt install python3-pip

Pip running on a default install of kali linux

NPM

npm is included in nodejs, so follow the install instruction here and here

VueJS

install nodejs – https://nodejs.org/en/

install vuecli3 – Building a PWA vuejs app with wordpress API – Part 1

npm install -g @vue/cli
npm install -g @vue/cli-service-global

create a new project (I like to create in github, clone and then initiate vue)

git clone XXXXXX
cd XXXXX
vue create .

Ten years ago, it was difficult to run Linux on the desktop as a web developer for your everyday dev machine for web. Today, its very simple – there is no reason to not use a linux machine as your daily-driver (in the same way that there is no reason not to run windows or osx – alll the tools you need are available on all platforms, except xcode, which is osx only, and is only needed if you are submitting to the apple app-store)