I would be very interested to know if there are any Linux distros that include programming software on the disks which could be easily installed at the time of installation of the OS. I'm a C and C++ Windows programmer interested in Linux, but as I have no capability to download software from the internet, I'd need some way of obtaining software which could be installed from removable media. I don't know very much about Linux but I see this as my main problem to adopting this operating system. Also, it appears I'd need toolkits such as lesstif, gtk+, etc. Right? It doesn't have to be free to suit me. I'm not poor. But I'm very interested!

Fred

virtually all the most popular fully featured ones do, it's a very common thing to want to do, as many programs are distributed as source code. probably worth your while checking distrowatch.com as they list the versions of major packages like gcc and glibc in each distro listed, which is what you would be looking for.

Slackware would be a really good distro for out of the box programming, but it might be quite difficult to start off with.

My reasoning is that slackware ships with Qt, Gtk and Tcl/Tk all as a standard full install. And you can easily buy the whole distro on cd from www.slackware.com. Not many other distros ship with that capacity.

Well, it really depends on your project. You might not need them at all. But as you don't have a network connection, having everything you can get your hands on would be a safe way to go (i.e. better safe than sorry).

Hi -

Acid Kewpie is correct - virtually all of the Linux distros should have everything you're looking for, usually right out of the box. And of course (as the previous posters noted), if you have an Internet connection, you can always get the latest version of whatever you want.

For whatever it's worth, I've always found SuSE Linux to be an excellent package with all of the Linux development tools (languages, libraries, tools, etc etc) I could possibly ask for:

http://www.novell.com/products/opens...velopment.html

'Hope that helps .. PSM

just becuase slack contains them (like all others in it's class) that's not a reason to recommend it as such. this shouldn't just be a popularity contest.

I remember reading about Zenwalk Linux, and how their distribution levitates around providing comfortable programming environments for the end user - meaning they include as many libraries, IDEs and interpreters as possible.

Thanks for all the replies! I'm a Linux newbie just struggling to get started with Linux (been at it for about 3 weeks). When I wrote this post couple days back I was pretty much in the depths of despair with Ubuntu and my difficulties in getting software installed without an internet connection and further aggravated with my poor knowledge of Linux. So that was the context of my question. I was about ready to just give up on Linux and it occurred to me that perhaps I could try another Distro that perhaps had a good bit of what I might need in terms of programming tools 'out of the box'. I had been suffering immensely downloading through Windows hundreds of deb packages and sweating blood to get them 'in' what with dependency issues and so on, and, I've gotta say, its been rough....

About a week ago I finally managed to get my gcc and g++ build environment working. I thought that was hard till I turned to Xlib! Brutal! About two hours ago I finally got my first Xlib program running (its not much to look at, I'll tell ya, but I'm elated, nonetheless!).

So, I think I'm good! I'm basically a Windows Api coder, and I'm really excited to try out this new environment. I want to try out the various toolkits, and go with what I like best. Since I'm basically a low level type coder I thought I'd start with Xlib, even though I've had people recommend against it. I'd really like to find something similar to the Win32 Api code I do in Windows. But I know its a different environment, and can't really expect exact similarities.

In terms of the internet connection thing, I just don't have the Linux configuration skills yet to tackle trying to configure a non-cooperating wireless card or a win-modem, and since my first love is programming, I wanted to see if I could get that going with Linux. If I could - and it looks to me like I have - I'll eventually deal with the connection thing. I've gotta say though, it doesn't look to me like enough thought has been given to installation issues for people not connected back to the 'mother-ship'.

Hi -

Glad you got things working!

An Internet connection is really indispensible ... and most configurations are just "plug and play". In fact, most Linux distros (believe it or not) are better at auto-detection and auto-configuration than Windows. That's certainly my experience with SuSE Linux (Suse Pro 8.x, 9.x and 10.x).

So please don't shy away from trying to get Internet working.

If you're lucky enough to have inexpensive broadband, that's obviously the way to go. Simply buy a standard NIC, plug it in ... and it's very likely to "just work".

If you are forced to use dial-up, then please do *not* buy a WinModem. It will be more expensive, but you really need to purchase a hardware modem if you want to be sure it will work.

And if you have any questions or any problems, please feel free to post back to LQ (in particular, to the "LQ, Networking" forum).

Your .. PSM