Hello,

I bet you must be sick and tired of hearing this but I'm one of those who is finally willing to put M$'s SW behind my back (after over 15 years of programming) and start using Linux. The problem is I don't know which particular distribution to focus on...

Therefore, in your opinion, what is the best Linux distribution for a professional hardcore C/C++ developer?

Thanks a million,

-- 0v3rload

There is only one valid answer to this question. Try a bunch and figure out what you like. If you are new to linux then don't start on some niche distro go with the Biggies that are well supported on this forum. You can look under the distribution area to see what is supported. What really want to ask is what program is best for development. I'm sure there a bunch out there. I use Quanta and blue Fish for web development, but I don't' know how well they will work with C/C++.

I personally like Fedora Core, its simple to use, supports most things, easy to keep up to date, and also I suspect a little bloated. Gentoo is excellent, if you can cope with it - everything compiled for your system so you can get it running beautifully.

Having said that, try as many as you can and see which works for you.

I was in the same position two weeks ago. One thing, in my opinion, is get a distro that you like the look of. I knew a little about unix but not much about linux. So I got a copy of Mandiva and Red hat. My work has something called vmware so I was able to install both systems on virtual machines and have a look first.

Once you have decided a distro, the next thing I did was install something called KDevelop. Its really good for a C/C++ and runs on nearly any distro with KDE.

Hope this helps
Smurff

I prefer Gentoo for PHP, Perl, and C development, but as everybody has said - it is your taste, that is why they call them 'Linux flavors'

"Which distro is best for me" is likely the most repeated topic on this board, followed by "1001 reasons Linux isn't ready for the desktop" but I think you're the first one I've seen who actually asked this question correctly, e.g., stating your intended use up front. Kudos!

Anyhow, which distro is best for a C++ developer? Really, any distro will suffice. However, considering that kdevelop is likely the most mature open-source IDE out there, you will likely want to choose a distro which comes with KDE as the default desktop. Mandriva will fit the bill there, as will SuSE if you either a) accept the default desktop or b) select KDE as your default environment during the custom install.

Closely following KDevelop in maturity where IDEs are concerned, you will also want to check out Anjuta. It won't be as close to MS Dev as KDevelop is (and let's face it - in reality no IDE can compare to Microsoft's MS Dev Studio. It is THE Holy Grail of development suites right now), and won't be able to handle as many languages or start you off with project framework wizards as advanced as KDevelops, but for the debugging portion, Anjuta is hard to beat.

With that said, I'd go with KDevelop - learn that tool, become familiar with it, and when KDE 4.0 comes out, along with the associated version of KDevelop, it's going to knock your socks off. I've been lurking on some of the mailing lists and it seems like they've set their eyes on Dev Studio and are working on integrating the remaining mainstream KDE development applications. I don't expect KDE 4.0 to catch up to MS Dev Studio (nor anyone else in the immediate future), but 5.0 might! If you do any PHP/web development, you'll be pleased to know that the KDE team is currently merging Quanta+ with KDevelop for the upcoming 4.0 release. It should be a really exciting release, followed by explosive growth in maturity of Linux apps and growth in Linux use in general.

Eclipse certainly shouldn't be left out of a list of IDEs. I use it for all my PHP needs (php-eclipse plugin).

Never try Mandriva because it lacks many developer packages in the freely downloadable 3-cd pack. Try Slackware, Gentoo (if you're adventurous) or even FreeBSD

LFS

It highly depends on what you need. I'm using some dedicated hardware at work. The manufacturer tested the drivers under a certain distro (RH8); so I stick to that distro for my standard development.
However parts of the application don't need the specific hardware. Those I develop partly at home using another distro (Slackware).

If you develop and want to give/sell the SW to others, you need a couple of distro's to test your application.

I have used Madrive(Mandrake) for all my development for a few years and its always been fine for me. Although I am interested in what issues you had.

Regards

i was in nearly the same position a few weeks ago. i'd always been a gentoo user, but i didnt really want to use it for development, so i got fedora core 4, and it working out fine for me.

as for mandrake, i had some issues too. i was constantly downloading libraries and kdevelop wouldnt even install untill i downloaded a bunch of other stuff.

What about Debian?


Peace V

Well I think I am even more confused now than I was when I first started this thread. And the reason is I only knew a few distros, such as Mandrake, Red Hat, SuSe, ... However, after 13 posts now and everybody (almost) recommending a completely different distro, I really don't know which to go for...

What about resources on the many Linux distros; does anybody know a site (i.e.) oriented for developers (no poetry, lots of technical info) ?

Thanks to everybody!

- 0v3load

[By the way, I'm thinking of going for SuSe 9.1 PEd. What do you think?]

Considering the user in question is a developer, I hardly think that's an issue. However, let's play with your statement, turning the argument around:

Why am I being a smartass here? To make a point. One of the distros you're mentioning is Gentoo, which requires you compile, what, every single component you want to install? What's the difference betwen installing Gentoo from source, and downloading KDevelop or Anjuta sources and compiling those? Let's not forget distros like Slackware, which while being a very solid distribution for technical folks, doesn't include everything Fedora or SuSE does out of the box.