I’m a junior backend software engineer. I use a Vim plugin on my fancy code editor. I like the command line but I’m not all in on it or anything.
If I was a Windows user I’d switch. But being a Mac user I have a lot of what I need for software development.
What am I missing out on? Genuine question.
Perhaps you shouldn’t. Any honest Linux user will tell you up front if that if you have a comfortable system already it may not be worth the disruption in your workflow while dealing with the learning curve. That being said, being free from the whims of Apple is a nice feeling.
As long as the distro has an ARM64 build, it’ll be fine virtualized on Apple silicon. Virtualbox has a developer preview build for M1/M2 Macs and I believe VMWare Fusion licenses are free for individuals.
While you can run AMD64 builds but it’s quite slow and painful (even in docker). Thankfully most distros have ARM64 builds available - and I second the “kick the tires” effort.