OSDev.org

Currently I'm doing OS develop on Windows. Now I'm deciding to switch to Linux. So which version of Linux do you think best suitable with OS developing ?

The one that you know how to use the most, and the one which you feel most comfortable with

How about CentOS 5.0....

pcmattman wrote:The one that you know how to use the most, and the one which you feel most comfortable with

I'm new to Linux. How about Fedora? I'm waiting for version 11

I'd personally recommend Ubuntu for anyone new to Linux. But as with most distribution-related choices, that's just an opinion - and everyone has their own

Ha ha. I'm not that kind of new. Ubuntu is not so good for developing anything...

Ubuntu is not so good for developing anything...

I wouldn't use any other distro for my development, and yes - I have tried other distributions. You are entitled to your own opinion however. The easiest way to figure out the right distribution for you is to download a couple and try them, and then pick the one you like the most.

I won't go as far as recommending a distro, since nobody will listen to me anyway, but consider these points:

• Unless you like pain, and like it in a big way, choose something with good package management; whether it's source or binary matters not. Distros with good package management are Debian, Ubuntu, Redhat, Gentoo, and arguably FreeBSD.
• Don't forget the BSDs. Not good for all uses, but sometimes they are just the ticket.
• Have a poke around for documentation first. Most Linux distros are sensible enough to choose decent defaults and let you just get on with things. But when you want to change something, almost every distro does it differently. So look at the available documentation, see how good it is, etc. Good documentation is a sign of a good userbase and a good community. Debian and Redhat win hands down in terms of available documentation (since they've been around longer than my grandmother), but others are quickly catching up.
• Why do you need to change from Windows? Cygwin is there, it works, and the rest of the OS is already pretty familiar.
• When it comes to choosing an operating system, don't listen to anybody who says "xyz is the best". They are telling the truth, but only for them.

I use a slightly fscked with xubuntu for my C-related development. I compiled a few toolkits and my text editor of choice (GEdit, just because I like it.) I like GEdit and Ubuntu, but I like xfce, so I've been playing with xubuntu.

I have used both FreeBSD 7.1 and Fedora Core 9 ... and later I sticked to Fedora, as it is easy to do things like editing the code, copying and pasting lines of code (not from others )... I would recommend FC 9, with devel tools and fs tools ...

I'm currently using Ubuntu 9.04, after the switch from windows to linux I found osdeving (or deving in general) under linux is way easier. By now I have completely stopped using windows for personal use (unfortunately the convert my boss to linux"project is a slow one)

quanganht wrote:Ha ha. I'm not that kind of new. Ubuntu is not so good for developing anything...

And yet I'm using ubuntu (technically xubuntu, but it's the same underlying system) to develop with absolutely no problems.


Ubuntu/Xubuntu/*buntu, in my opinion, is the easiest to work with as there is a LOT of support online for it.

Im sure most people will disagree with me, but I like SuSE. Yast2, their installation manager, allows you to choose many different packages to install from an online repository, and takes care of configuring everything for you. If you are just doing development, you can get your system setup very quickly. Anything else you might need, like bochs, you can always just compile yourself, but yast is good for installing libraries and resolving dependancies for you

So do many other linux distros. YaST isn't really a special case. There are only two kinds of distros really - the one that come with an automated installer, and the ones requiring manual install. There's no reason to choose SuSE in particular because of YaST.

Ubuntu's Synaptic package manager works just as well as YaST.

pcmattman wrote:I'd personally recommend Ubuntu for anyone new to Linux.

As would I, since I've used it for about a year now and I like it. My first distro was Fedora Core 3 (lol) but I started using Ubuntu about a year ago and Xubuntu for four or so months. I prefer xfce to GNOME, but that's just an opinion.