I have the option to install the Android SDK on Windows or OSX. Which platform provides a better (easier) development experience?
To keep this constructive, I’m looking for any difference that eliminates compatibility issues, ease of debugging, or compatibility with 3rd party utilities.
3
Linux
I think you would want to use a Linux based OS for Developing Android applications seeing as how Android is a Linux Based OS, it’s open source, it’s free, and can run on a partition next to windows, and I think Mac Os as well (don’t quote me on that though). it’s been a while since I opened up eclipse on my Linux box but I remember it being fairly quick.
and everything that you need will be available on Linux as well.
if you are unfamiliar with Linux it could be difficult to maneuver I guess, but you shouldn’t have any compatibility issues using Linux.
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Both Windows and OS X support Java at the moment, but in the long term I heard that Apple will be dropping Java support on OS X.
Edit
It seems that Oracle will provide direct support for Java on OS X.
I’ve had an experience of developing for Android with Eclipse both on Windows and on OS X (on Intel 5i processor).
OS X had some advantages: the emulator worked faster, Eclipse didn’t have those weird things which often appear on Windows. So if you have a chance to develop on OS X and you’re going to use Eclipse, I think it’s easier and will save your nerves.
1
I think you should consider the complete list of 3rd party tools you’ll be needing. Android, Java, Eclipse, VCS (at least bzr, git, svn) should not be a problem.
For example I have an Android project which has a small python scripting part in it too, and I could not get libxml working on Mac OS X, even though it’s working out of the box on Windows or Linux.