Why Terminal-Based Development Is Best For Me

One day, I was working on a Python project. I had my 'reliable and speedy' Windows and my 'fast and optimized' VS Code. But, the only issue with this, is that those adjectives, are false. To have three browser tabs and one VS Code window open at the same time was like a death wish to my 16GB of RAM. And, as you may have guessed, this wasn't just 'one day', but rather, every single time I wanted to do any sort of development in the Microsoft ecosystem (minus the browser, I viewed Microsoft Edge as terrible and Chrome as just the only replacement, despite its lag).

At that rate, imagine how slow it was for me to code. I was running the newest Windows, the newest VS Code, didn't have any unnecessary background apps, and followed every single 'secret' step to 'optimize' and 'speed up' Windows and its associated applications. I was doing everything right, but it still was too slow. Oftentimes, a large portion of my 16GB of RAM, was used simply by thousands of background services that added up to use a large amount of memory.

So, approximately three months ago, on March 10th, 2026, I decided to experiment with dual-booting a Linux distribution on my main computer. I shrunk my Windows partition with the Disk Management application and proceeded to allocate around 300GB of space on my 1TB SSD (solid-state drive) for Debian 13.3, (Trixie), a Linux distribution notable for its stability, large software repository, extensive architecture support, strict free and open source software (FOSS) philosophy, and upgrade reliability. And, so far, I have only used 62GB of space on the 300GB partition, meaning that I could have been very comfortable with 100GB. This data usage is including large media files.

I originally thought I would only use Linux as a side project or hobby, and that I would often boot to Windows, too. But, two facts made me never boot Windows again with the intent to use it for purposes other than data collection. Those facts are:

1. I have never experienced lagginess on Linux that I deemed to not have a reasonable cause.


2. It was not as hard to use as I thought it would be.

To elaborate more on fact two, at least to me, the complexity of Linux is decided by your Desktop Environment (DE). On Windows, you are locked down to one Desktop Environment (DE) that can be very laggy, but is extremely simple to use for basic tasks. On the other hand, Linux generally allows users to choose their own Desktop Environment (DE), with the exception being certain immutable distributions and Operating Systems like Android OS and Chrome OS (yes, they rely on Linux). On Linux, users can choose themselves the correct balance between accessibility, usability, and speed for their specific circumstances by making an educated choice on which Desktop Environment (DE) to utilize.

I originally tried my best to find the 'perfect', light-weight IDE for Linux. I tried , are not FOSS (free and open-source).