Transcription
Very often, we talk about applications that both regular users and developers should install and use to enhance their computer experience. However, we rarely discuss programs that no one should install.
If we talk about developers, there are also a number of programs they should never install on their computers. So today, I will tell you which applications IT professionals should almost never install on their computers and why.
Let's start with code editors, but not all of them. The fact is, there are a huge number of applications for writing and editing code that were released a long time ago and are both outdated and cumbersome. Yet, people still reliably use Eclipse. It is an old and massive, unwieldy monster that, indeed, has many capabilities.
For example, there’s Atana, which was released to write Nend based on Eclipse, and the same goes for NetBeans from AP, which has also been around for many years and is, of course, completely free. For some reason, many people still install it.
There are many other programs, and if they are small, like TextMate, which I personally really love, then go ahead. It launches quickly and doesn’t consume many resources. But if it’s something like Atana or Eclipse, avoid installing these applications.
They often lack new features, do not support some new languages or updates in programming languages, and they do not incorporate artificial intelligence. Most likely, they will never be updated again, so new features will not appear there.
It is not necessary to use standard text writing applications in operating systems. There are many free programs for code editing, as you probably know. There’s VS Code, and many programs from JetBrains have now become free. So install these modern editors and use them.
Never install unverified or unnecessary dependencies. I have talked many times about various situations related to those very dependencies. For example, FTPd was removed from PMA, and a bunch of projects that used it died. Or the situation with Faker JS and Color JS, whose authors ruined these libraries to break the applications that depend on them.
And of course, I recently talked about dependencies in Python that recruiters send. Well, these dependencies, after installation, steal information about your crypto wallet. So before installing something you are not familiar with, think about whether you really need it. Also, check the version and any information about this library online.
There are various websites, and there’s my blog where I discuss these issues. These sites also post news about which libraries are bad, infected, and which ones you should avoid.
You do not need a graphical interface for Git. Despite the fact that there are many such programs, and even GitHub released its own, you should not install them on your computer.
First of all, some Git interface should be built into your editor if you are using a modern editor rather than an old, cumbersome one. You can perform some actions there as well. In everyday life, 99% of the time, you will need just four or five commands that you can memorize and enter in the terminal, which will actually be significantly faster and more convenient.
If you occasionally need a graphical interface to perform some complex actions, do not install GitHub Desktop or GitKraken. There’s a tool called Lazy Git, which is a graphical interface for the terminal. So in those rare cases when you really need something more complex than `git add`, `git commit`, and `git push`, you can use this program.
You can open it and do a lot of things, from simple history comparisons to what exists now, to resetting, refreshing, deleting files from old commits, and so on.
You might be surprised, but you should not install programming languages and databases on your computer if they are not already installed. Although they are likely needed for your work, there are many versions of databases that you are currently using or might use in the future.
The same goes for PHP. There seem to be five or six current versions, but some code may have been written a long time ago, or you may have projects that were also written a long time ago. You might even have hosting with PHP version 5, so you may need different versions of PHP.
Python, fortunately, is almost always installed with version 3, so you don’t need to do anything about that, although there are some minor updates. The same goes for databases.
Today, if you want to work with PostgreSQL, you install it on your system. Tomorrow, you need MySQL, and you install it. The day after tomorrow, you need MongoDB, and now you have it. Then you need Redis for caching, and so on.
I recently talked about how to do this much more easily without cluttering your computer. Use Docker. Docker or Podman allows you to run various almost server-like operating systems, programming languages, and databases within themselves and easily get rid of them when you no longer need them.
Since there are containers or images of various versions of programming languages for Docker, in each project, you can run exactly the version of the language that was once in it and use it for development. So don’t clutter your system.
As I said, use Docker or Podman and remove them as soon as you stop using them because you can always download them again. Docker, by the way, will save you from bad dependencies. If they want to steal something from your disk, running them in a container will prevent those dependencies from accessing your data.
Of course, installing little-known terminals is also very dangerous. Yes, the console program built into the operating system is not always the best, especially when it comes to Windows. However, there are many safe terminals you can install. For example, there’s Warp if you want something modern that helps you write commands, or the well-known iTerm, which works great, is fast, has many features, and is community-tested. It is definitely safe.
Since most programs you use for the terminal have access everywhere in the system, using unverified programs can lead to them, just like bad dependencies, starting to steal data from your disks.
The same can be said for old programs, like Xterm. Yes, it won’t steal anything, but because it’s old, it doesn’t know everything and may have security holes. Through these holes, attackers can steal something.
I won’t mention pirated software, whether it’s Photoshop or some development environment from JetBrains. You know that pirated software downloaded from unverified sites can contain viruses and scripts that can also steal something from you, so it’s best not to do that.
And of course, think seven times before granting any access to a program if it has a graphical interface or running an installation or program with sudo. Because, remember, by entering your password, you give these programs access to any place, to any information on the disk. If these programs are unverified, they can do whatever they want.
That’s all for today. Write in the comments which programs you recommend installing or not installing on computers.
Like this video if you enjoyed it, subscribe to the channel so you don’t miss my other videos. But I’m not saying goodbye; this is the internet, and we will see each other soon.