Are you looking to make the jump from office-based developer to remote work? If so, you’re not alone. Over the past couple of years, primarily because of the pandemic, more and more developers have been embracing the freedom of working from home or wherever they choose.
If you’re working with software distribution and looking to speed up or/and scale deployments across your devices, you need the proper setup and tools. But with that freedom comes a certain level of responsibility—namely, setting up an effective desktop environment for yourself. It can be tricky to get right, but once you do, it makes your life as a remote worker much easier.
Consider the Hardware You Need
If you want to become a remote developer, you first need to consider what type of hardware you need. A laptop is essential, and if possible, you should try to get one with the latest specifications, such as a good processor, plenty of RAM and storage, and at least one USB-C port. Depending on your preferences, you may also want to invest in additional peripherals such as a mouse, keyboard, external monitor(s), and headphones.
Choose the Right Software & Tools for Your Development Environment
Once you have the hardware sorted out, it’s time to choose the right software and tools for your development environment. Depending on the type of programming languages you will be utilizing, various text editors (e.g., Sublime Text or Notepad++), integrated development environments (IDEs) such as Visual Studio Code or Eclipse, compilers, debugging tools, etc., can help make coding easier and faster. It is also essential to ensure that all your tools are up to date so that they can take advantage of any recent improvements or bug fixes that have been made available.
Set Up an Ergonomic Workspace
When working remotely from home or any other location, it is important to set up an ergonomic workspace to avoid strain and fatigue. This should include the following:
- Ensure your laptop screen is at eye level when sitting up straight in your chair so that no pressure is put on your neck muscles from having to look down too much.
- Ensuring your keyboard is positioned correctly so it does not cause wrist pain.
- Placing items like mice and keyboards within easy reach.
- Having adequate space for items like books, among other things; incorporating elements like soft lighting so as not to strain your eyes; etc.
These small details can go a long way towards helping maintain productivity levels over time.
Ensure Your Laptop Has Enough Memory & Storage
It is also essential that your laptop has enough memory and storage space to handle large projects without running out of resources mid-way through completion. If it does not have enough memory or storage capacity, then consider investing in more, as this will help prevent unexpected delays due to project size limitations when using specific software programs or compiling code into applications that often require large amounts of memory and/or storage space. It might even be worth considering upgrading some components, such as purchasing a larger hard drive or adding more RAM, depending on how intensively you plan on using these resources in the future.
Get the Most Out of Your Laptop by Optimizing Its Performance
You should also make sure that you get the most out of your laptop by optimizing its performance with basic maintenance tasks such as regularly cleaning temporary files from its hard drive with disk cleanup programs, updating drivers whenever new versions are released by manufacturers (or manually if needed), disabling unnecessary startup programs which might be consuming resources in the background without being noticed until there’s an issue with overall system performance later on down the line, etc. Doing these few simple steps will help ensure that everything runs smoothly when working remotely from home or any other location where access may be limited compared with working from an office environment with readily available technical support services at hand.
Establish a Secure Remote Connection Between Yourself & Your Employer’s Servers
Last but not least is ensuring that there is a secure remote connection between yourself and your employer’s servers while developing remotely from home or any other location outside their network boundaries. A virtual private network (VPN) provides better security than just relying on public networks by encrypting data sent back and forth between both endpoints – something which should always be taken into consideration for added peace of mind when dealing with sensitive client information during remote development assignments outside regular business hours where resources available within an office environment aren’t readily available away from those premises either due lack of availability or access restrictions placed by IT departments prohibiting use outside their own physical networks limits respectively.
