What is the best Linux Distro to start developing a OS?

[Kerb]

Hello! As you should be guessing, im new here! I really want to get along well with you people.
The important part: I want to start developing a OS, and i know that the best platform to do a lot of the works involved is Linux. But i'm a windows user essentially, so I'm pretty misguided in this: What is the best distto to start developing? Like, the bare bones example? I want to start with the right foot and don't make mistakes.
-thanks in advance!

[pat]

If you're on Windows 10 you could just stick with the WSL. But if you want a Linux distro, something like Ubuntu or Fedora would be easy to get going, just follow along with the docs on their homepage. Whatever distro you pick, just make sure you get the latest release. I just listed beginner friendly distributions, but it really doesn't matter which one you go with as they'll pretty much always either come with what you need, or be able to get what you need easily. The wiki goes over what you'll need here: https://wiki.osdev.org/Getting_Started# ... nvironment.

[Kerb]

Thank you, I use Windows 8.1, i nwver got used to 10 :/. About the distros, do you think Xubuntu is fine for this purpose? Thanks!

[pat]

Yeah its fine, like I said you can't really go wrong with a choice here. Xubuntu is just an Ubuntu derivative based around Xfce, so it'll still share the same packages as Ubuntu.

[Kerb]

Thank you, I truly appreciate your help!

[zaval]

and i know that the best platform to do a lot of the works involved is Linux.

well, trying to be polite - you should spit in the face to that person who said that. Or better yet - make them eat their toe cheese publicly. it's such a blatant, miserable and ridiculous ad of the OS that never found its way into desktop and as an unfortunate consequence - made its fans' trying their hard to brainwash everybody with things like you quoted.
I never used linux as my desktop. Still I have development tools for MIPS, ARMv7, ARMv8 and PPC on my old XP machine. That is I found GCC and tools for bear metal(R) programming on 3 architectures. Didn't even do that stupid compiling, because good people already have done that, why waste electricity?
Architecturally linux is not the best platform to learn too. It's a monolithic unmanaged pile of stuff, you won't find there anything useful, interesting, innovative or at least well done. Their approach to everybody outside - "we are gods, you are moron we don't care ..." no documentation, no structure, nothing, just an arrogance and inferiority complex. whereas their code is just a huge piece of mammoth coprolite copy.
Just be a little more researching when finding tools for your platform - they exist. Google it. I found an amazing PPC gcc for windows just in a few minutes.
Learn about OS by something worth, there are a lot of materials. Microkernels, nano, pico, exo whatever kernels. Something new, something interesting. Or about Windows NT. BeOS... Or even about OSX. xD jk. who needs yet another primitive linux takeoff, which by itself is a takeoff?

[Kerb]

Thanks, I said that because a lot of things are more... easy, to do in Linux. I would love to do everything in Windows, but I really hate to install lots of things because it is not the standard. I had thought about using OSX, but I had run into lots of trouble trying to install it in my PC (Even when it has a Intel cpu). I have a lot to learn, but writting, learning and fixing problems is something I love, specially when at the end of the day I could see a screen with printed text on it, made by work and basic troubleshooting. I hope someday I can be able to discuss about why X OS is really good or bad, even when I have used at least 5 on my PC. I really appreciate your help and feedback, I will investigate more and one day I could even post something solid. Thanks again, for the lest time.

PS: I'm not taking linux as an example, I personally think it is uncomplete as a whole, I would never think that it is a good idea to release something that MUST be implemented with other tools to work. It is not friendly for the user, it is tedious in its own way. But it must have something special, because I see no reason to maintain it if it were for this things. But personally think it is not a good example.

[iansjack]

I have a lot to learn

I think the important thing to learn is to think for yourself. Don't accept an incoherent rant, with no logic backing it, at face value. If you find a particular set of tools useful, then use them.

I'm not going to enter into a flame war between Linux and Windows - you very rarely get any sense from either side in such an argument.

If you think Windows has the best tools - then go for it. If you think Linux has better tools then make a different decision. OS X is a fine OS too, but you really need an Apple computer to use it consistently so it may not be the best choice for many people.

You can get the best of both worlds by using the Windows Linux subsystem or by running Linux in a VM.

As to the best one for development work - again, it's all a matter of opinion. I find Debian - with XFCE - a less restrictive environment than Ubuntu but your requirements may be different.

[clusterlizard]

Hello kerb, I'm new too. I like to develop on Linux. Currently, I'm using Arch, because a base install is pretty minimal, I like the package manager and the documentation is thorough and accurate. You may want to entertain the idea of building Linux From Scratch. It takes some time, but you will learn a lot about how an OS in general, and Linux in particular, are put together (beyond the kernel).

I mostly work from the command line, using nothing but vim and makefiles, but Microsoft has a really good dev environment called Visual Studio Code. It is cross-platform and will work on Windows, Mac and Linux. It supports different languages and tools through plugins. Anyway, if you can get to the point where you can work on the command line only, you can just set up a Linux (or FreeBSD, or whatever) development box and ssh into it from whatever other OS you prefer for other things (I mainly use a Macbook pro, but also a Zenbook Pro running Windows 10 and I've been developing on two Intel NUCs running Arch linux).

Good luck!

[anatolik]

If you are looking for a OS for development then Linux is definitely among the main options. Linux distros have all the toolset required and what is the most important they allow to setup the tools in a consistent ways using package managers. Neither Windows nor MacOSX have good packages managers, unfortunately.

Another thing that really boosted my development speed is a tiling window manager that allows me to organize my workspace in a more efficient way. I use i3 (https://i3wm.org/) but there are few more options available at Linux.

So if your goal is to do development rather than fighting with the system then Linux is your choice. Debian would be the best beginner option. And I use Arch Linux myself that I found really awesome distro for development.

[iansjack]

Note that if you want to connect remotely you don't need to restrict yourself to command-line work. Just run an X server on your main machine and then you can run graphical programs (or even a whole desktop) from the Linux box. That's how I work with my Pi's. You can even run graphical programs in WSL this way.

I'll second the recommendation for Visual Studio Code. It's a really nice working environment and works well with the gnu tools.

[Octocontrabass]

I do most of my development on Windows using MSYS2. For me, it's more convenient than a Linux system: all of my familiar tools are available, and it can also produce native Windows binaries of my non-OS-related tools. It also has a package manager, which means setting up the prerequisites for building GCC is a snap.

Possibly the only downside is that the prerequisites aren't clearly documented anywhere, but there are some threads here that should help you get on the right track.

[Kerb]

I have a lot to learn

I think the important thing to learn is to think for yourself. Don't accept an incoherent rant, with no logic backing it, at face value. If you find a particular set of tools useful, then use them.

I'm not going to enter into a flame war between Linux and Windows - you very rarely get any sense from either side in such an argument.

If you think Windows has the best tools - then go for it. If you think Linux has better tools then make a different decision. OS X is a fine OS too, but you really need an Apple computer to use it consistently so it may not be the best choice for many people.

You can get the best of both worlds by using the Windows Linux subsystem or by running Linux in a VM.

As to the best one for development work - again, it's all a matter of opinion. I find Debian - with XFCE - a less restrictive environment than Ubuntu but your requirements may be different.

I'm using Xubuntu (A ubuntu derivate that uses XFCE) and it is very clean, I actually feel very confortable! Normally, the people likes to defend with all its might the things they use or believe in. I think it is just normal to get a completely senseless conversation in any flamewar.

[Kerb]

Hello kerb, I'm new too. I like to develop on Linux. Currently, I'm using Arch, because a base install is pretty minimal, I like the package manager and the documentation is thorough and accurate. You may want to entertain the idea of building Linux From Scratch. It takes some time, but you will learn a lot about how an OS in general, and Linux in particular, are put together (beyond the kernel).

I mostly work from the command line, using nothing but vim and makefiles, but Microsoft has a really good dev environment called Visual Studio Code. It is cross-platform and will work on Windows, Mac and Linux. It supports different languages and tools through plugins. Anyway, if you can get to the point where you can work on the command line only, you can just set up a Linux (or FreeBSD, or whatever) development box and ssh into it from whatever other OS you prefer for other things (I mainly use a Macbook pro, but also a Zenbook Pro running Windows 10 and I've been developing on two Intel NUCs running Arch linux).

Good luck!

Thanks, I think arch is good, but I'm more familiar with debian distros, I don't use CMD in Windows, but I don't mind using the terminal in linux, even when I get into a problem, I just search a little bit and learn how to do something. In my case I have a I3 Pc with Nvidia graphics where i have been able to install from free-bsd to OSX (but it had some problems, since then i wasn't able to install it again, even in other HDD, but maybe someday I'll try again)
About VS code: I haven't tried it, but it sounds good, maybe in a future I will test it... because I tend to have problems with microsoft's apps and programs :/