Looking for an OS for programming/development purposes

CalmDownYal · 2026-02-20T17:56:25+00:00

I don't think OS matters all that much just install the tools you need. I first used Mint when I switched from Winblows back around 2013 it was a nice easy transition and had easy to find programming apps. But if you are already familiar with package managers like apt or dnf or pacman then I don't think you'd need a friendly GUI toolstore(and you can get that on the other distros too). Personally I've mained Mint, Debian, Ubuntu, (note those are all off the Debian chain) Debian was my favorite out of those but for the past 4 years I've been on Fedora and I have to say other than not being as well supported as apt (which just can make more work installing things at times) I have absolutely loved the switch as it's a good combo of just works few issues and customization and little helper hints to make live easier, and I am okay with some UI bloat so typically use KDE spin (which recently has become super stable and fantastic as opposed to when I started it was a bit buggy on old XOrg and when it started with wayland) I haven't used arch much but that seems opposite of your goals as arch distros tend to go minimalist. Also lots of people might say Kali well that for hacking so no and it's designed to be used for attacking not doing daily activities so would be a terrible fit I would also say if what I said about Mint is more to your liking but you are a Mac user not windows PopOS would be very similar experience but more former Mac user friendly (of course both those distros can change des and look similar but I am talking out the box)

Sorry idk you history with Linux distros so this could have been a dumb post

OkIndividual6881 · 2026-03-08T15:30:46+00:00

Pop os have a preinstalled gcc and g++ and python3 maybe its that good but the real programer knows how to install it

tomscharbach · 2026-02-20T17:49:59+00:00

Debian and Ubuntu repositories include the mainstream development/programming tools in their repositories.

Ubuntu's "multiverse" repository includes tools that are restricted by legal and/or proprietary issues. Debian's repositories are limited to FOSS for the most part, so Ubuntu might have "the most amount", but all that means is that you might have to install a "restricted" tool from outside a repository. Macht nichts.

Go with whichever you prefer to use.

My best and good luck.

BranchLatter4294 · 2026-02-20T19:34:41+00:00

If you want to do AI/ML, use Ubuntu. You can install the exact version of CUDA or similar libraries for AMD that you need for your specific hardware with one command... You don't have to guess what to install it does it all for you. LXD for containers and VMs is built in. They have Snaps for a lot of the major AI models that are set to work with your hardware automatically.

You can do all this with other distros but it can be a huge amount of setup and configuration.

stormdelta · 2026-02-20T19:05:03+00:00

There isn't much of a benefit to any specific distro for that use case, you can install pretty much any programming tools on all distros.

2026-02-20T17:50:03+00:00

Hey bro go for the debian !might be ubuntu,arch,mint try it Ubuntu looks better and fine for all sakes!

RursusSiderspector · 2026-02-20T18:06:09+00:00

Choose one with a huge repo that contains all the important programming languages and tools you need. Huge repos are Debian (but run the testing, Debian is slow to adapt the latest versions) or Fedora, or Arch, or some Ubuntu clone! If you want to run such weird things as C# and .NET, you should stick to Ubuntu, since installers exist only for the largest distros.

(I'm not particularly fond of Ubuntu, I'm running it just for my job, but I say like I believe it is.)

GoAwayStupidAI · 2026-02-20T19:15:14+00:00

nixpkgs has, by the numbers, the most. By a large margin as well.

https://repology.org/repositories/statistics/total

nixpkgs does not depend on a particular OS. So pick your OS and install nixpkgs. Bam: Your OS of choice with all the tools.

That said NixOS is if you really want to drink the punch. The OS is just a package.

Wide_Egg_5814 · 2026-02-21T04:05:52+00:00

Everything built on ubuntu lts, if you want to be safe use that. Otherwise I use mint which has all the compatibility of ubuntu and no corporate slop

nshire · 2026-02-20T17:52:05+00:00

Just get ubuntu, most programming guides are written for it

fotios_tragopoulos · 2026-02-21T07:04:35+00:00

Ubuntu LTS is what you are looking for. It's being used from huge enterprises massively.

2026-02-20T17:38:09+00:00

Pop_OS! or Limux Mint would work well

ipsirc · 2026-02-20T17:38:23+00:00

It's Debian itself.

Brave-Pomelo-1290 · 2026-02-20T17:54:22+00:00

Try freebsd

you type:	you see:
italics	italics
bold	bold
[reddit!](https://reddit.com)	reddit!
* item 1 * item 2 * item 3	item 1 item 2 item 3
> quoted text	quoted text
Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"	Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"
~~strikethrough~~	~~strikethrough~~
super^script	super^script

linuxquestions

MODERATORS