best Linux distro for programming?. i honesty dont want to buy a mac just for programming if i dont have to.

Buy a Mac

Ubuntu

@ThatDude let me elaborate ;) It was meant as a joke here :p But everyone is free to do whatever they want :D
I personally do like Mac, but I don't like the price.

Buy a Mac (no joke) ;)

@ctrl-alt-del hmmm then your name should be: cmd+alt+del xD
But that wouldn't do anything. Better: cmd+alt+esc

yea well, windows 10 is not god's gift to programmers thats for sure

price is really not an issue for me. its just.. apple and their restriction bullcrap. i heard Debian is good.

Arch is the best imo... but only if u have prior experience in Linux...
Arch has tons of packages to streamline and ease ur dev life and provide u with packages for which u wud have to scour various website otherwise.

Plus it’s light on RAM and is ultra customizable 😍😍🤗🤗

M using Mac myself though... works and runs great without bothering me...
But still I miss the customizability that Arch offers haha 😊

If u do have the money, get a Mac, but it is not really necessary... Arch will rule ur heart anyways 😍😍☺️☺️

@irene true, but to me building things by myself is more customizable than shifting from existing things... so yea, they all r customizable but to my eyes, the unskippable part is a plus 😊

If you're not into a Mac, a Linux laptop.

Make sure whichever generic laptop you pick has a usable keyboard and is supported.

A Dell xps perhaps? Or maybe system76? :)

@lotd I agree... it’s a big pain to get Linux to work on special hardware... especially gaming laptops...
Optimus... *shivers*

Ubuntu or Linux Mint, are easiest to install, Fedora is also easy to install.
For me I use Ubuntu

What you want for programming: good documentation and a lot of libraries available through the package manager

Linux Mint/Ubuntu (it's nearly the same under the hood), if you are just coming from windows and are not very experienced with Linux.
The Ubuntu Wiki is great for beginners and there is a big community where you can find simple answers to every question.
Also most software provides installation instructions or easily installable deb packages for Ubuntu based Systems.

Archlinux if you have some experience with Linux. You will have to configure everything yourself. The Arch Wiki is awesome and will guide you through everything easily. You will learn a lot about Linux and how your system works. But don't expect a ready to go OS. But using this way will guarantee, that you know, what is going on. (important for programming)
Arch is great, because the package manager provides nearly everything. And if something isn't provided: AURs will help. Use Yaourt.

Manjaro is easy Arch...

@Bitwise I've never come across an interview where Linux has been questioned about.
Not even when applying for a sysadmin position.

Any distro will do. For beginners I recommend Ubuntu.

@lotd Who employs sysadmins without Linux knowledge?

@Bitwise good points, especially the lenovo thing.
Lenovo ≠ Lenovo
The ThinkPad line (originated from IBM) is great but expensive.
Everything else from Lenovo is either something unoriginal for a special task (Yoga Book is awesome for designers...) or just cheap garbage. Nothing you would want as a Dev.

Fedora is nice, especially if you need to use some closed source / commercial software which is only provided as rpm package. Redhat and its free variant Fedora are using RPMs natively and therefore it's a lot easier to install for example Oracle packages on Fedora than on other distributions.
I used Fedora while when developing with Oracle software at university. But I had it only as secondary OS.
The documentation is quite complicated and (especially for beginners) you won't find a lot of community conversation about basic problems.

Similar arguments would go for Suse/OpenSuse.

@jorgecastillodp
Take a look at Distrowatch:
https://distrowatch.com/dwres-mobil...

@theCalcaholic windows server hosting providers, apparently. :p

@lotd Eww

Ubuntu seems to be respected when it comes to programming with Linux as it requires minimal setup to start coding.

I recommend Manjaro. It is Arch based, but easy to install as Ubuntu, comes with NVidia drivers if you need those. And then there is AUR on top of Manjaro own repo.

@Condor Sudden breakages? Oo

I mean there was that day when I tried to remove python from the system and didn't pay attention to the prompt which told me that my whole system depended on it...

But other than self-caused breakages like that I have no clue what you mean (I'm using Debian Testing for more than 4 years now if that's relevant).

I don't think the learning curve is very steep if you're using a beginner friendly distro which comes with a graphical software manager. My brother used Ubuntu just fine on school and he didn't have to learn significantly more than a Windows user.

@Bitwise I agree. After having had two Lenovo laptops with the same critical Mainboard failure I'm done with the company.

@Bitwise
that was my other question. which is the best laptop for linux if $ is not an issue. i see Asus is the way to go thus far

@jorgecastillodp Basically all recent hardware should be well supported. If the laptop has Nvidia Optimus (an onboard GPU and a dedicated GPU which you can switch between - only required for gaming or maybe machine learning) prepare for some pain, because Nvidia is really lazy when it comes to Linux support.

Laptop from System76 with their POP!_OS ? I have never used one but I think they are good. 😁

@Condor Yeah but that's the draw back of using a blessing edge system (Arch).
It's nice and all if you know what you're doing but I wouldn't recommend any beginner to use such a system for that very reason. You shouldn't usually run into such troubles when using Ubuntu or Debian (except if you're deliberately opting for the 'unstable' releases).

You can't do nothing wrong with Linux Mint. But you could also try Pop OS. It's designed for developers and is based off Ubuntu.

Hackintosh....

@Electrux gonna have to agree with Arch on this one

@jorgecastillodp

Install Arch for your first Linux distro. Trust me in that it will make all future work much, much easier having started from the top. (Plus arch only takes like ten minutes to figure out the first time, it really isn't that bad)

But buy a mac first so if the only device to work with gets fucked - you have an alternative research/work device, even in dealing with just the easier Linux distros

@mkdirLuci4 geee thanks 🤗🤗

@mkdirLuci4 He could also install Linux on that Mac. Just to be sure...

@mkdirLuci4 I would really NOT recommend Arch if you actually need to start working on that system.

If you got a lot of time and don't need to be productive right now - fine, go for it.
But otherwise, don't install Arch right away. It's not only about the system itself but about setting up your development environments. That'll take enough time on a new system, no matter which one (for example it took ages for me to setup tensorflow on Windows *shudder*).

Well what kind of programming? If you do mobile (android and ios) a Mac would be better, it reaches nicely to web so it really wouldnt be that much of an issue. Other than that with Linux I have a prefference towards Arch (or a derivative of it such as Manjaro) or an ubuntu based os like Linux Lite

(serious) arch

Debian like?

I just installed popos, based on ubuntu. It feels just right.

@mundo03 Popos sounds strange to german ears... (It translates as 'butts')

@theCalcaholic in spanish transaltes to cacas (in childish sland) which is multiple turds

To be fair, it is actually POP!_OS .. but still...

@ctrl-alt-del A Mac does not provide ctrl+alt+del. 😂

Try SOLUS linux

https://imgur.com/a/kBqOb

other Works of solus project
https://plus.google.com/+Solus-Proj...

@CluelessBanana esc button missing LOL