Best downloadable Linux version

[polarmystery]

Hey guys,

I am learning the process of embedded systems engineering writing device drivers on a Linux platform but I do not yet have an OS installed on my machine. What do you guys recommend I get? I think I have Redhat somewhere at home, and Ubuntu lying around somewhere but I haven't used a Linux platform in a while and I'm trying to refresh. Thanks in advance!

 

[sourceninja]

You can't go wrong with ubuntu, suse, fedora, debian, or any other major distro. I'm a ubuntu fan personally.

 

[Markbnj]

Ubuntu or Debian I'd say. I run both here, tend to use Debian for the server stuff and Ubuntu for desktops, but you can really do whatever you want with either of them.

 

[polarmystery]

Great! Thanks for the replies!

 

[Crusty]

Originally posted by: Markbnj
Ubuntu or Debian I'd say. I run both here, tend to use Debian for the server stuff and Ubuntu for desktops, but you can really do whatever you want with either of them.

:thumbsup:

I agree completely, Ubuntu/Debian is the way to go. Really any distro based off of Debian will be good, aptitude is wonderful 🙂

 

[LuckyTaxi]

i love me some debian but we use RH and it's a bitch to solve dependencies.

 

[slugg]

I'd say take the path of least resistance. Find out what your servers are running and download a distro that is based of the same code-base so that they play nice in case you ever have to develop something locally. For example, if your servers are Debian, then Debian (duh) or Ubuntu are great choices. If they're RedHat, then RedHat, CentOS, or even Fedora could do the trick. If at all possible, stick to a MAJOR distro. If you can get away with Ubuntu, then that's what I'd pick. Remember - the more popular the distro, the more support you can find for it 😉

And in some cases, you could even use a Mac!

 

[Ka0t1x]

I would definitely agree with Debian based (Ubuntu is by far my fav), and as slugg has said, OSX will play nicely with Linux environments.

I've also heard good things about Linux Mint (Debian based).

 

[postmortemIA]

openSUSE will come with most stuff out-of-the-box for programmers.

default version of ubuntu doesn't even install g++ compiler

 

[chronodekar]

Originally posted by: polarmystery
... writing device drivers on a Linux platform ...

We do this in the company I work for. For the most part, its an employee preference as to which distro to use. I mean, if you writing device drivers, all you need is access to the kernel and NOT the windowing system.

I highly recommend Ubuntu. It's just too easy to configure (compared to other distros) and I've got great help from their online forums for really technical queries. (well, at least ubuntu related questions get answered a lot quicker there than asking here... 😉 )

-chronodekar

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
openSUSE will come with most stuff out-of-the-box for programmers.

default version of ubuntu doesn't even install g++ compiler

Well if he is writing drivers, a C++ compiler would be rather useless. Even if he wanted to use C++... what? is 'sudo apt-get install g++*' too hard to type?

Ubuntu/Debian based distros are amazing. Even if you have an Intel based graphics card, most of the issues with the latest version have been ironed out very nicely.

Fedora(/Red Hat) isn't bad, but the package manager among other things just didn't feel as polished and quick to me.

openSUSE doesn't have nearly as big of a repository as Fedora or Debian but seemed bloated to me and not nearly as user friendly.

-Kevin

 

[postmortemIA]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
openSUSE will come with most stuff out-of-the-box for programmers.

default version of ubuntu doesn't even install g++ compiler

Well if he is writing drivers, a C++ compiler would be rather useless. Even if he wanted to use C++... what? is 'sudo apt-get install g++*' too hard to type?

Ubuntu/Debian based distros are amazing. Even if you have an Intel based graphics card, most of the issues with the latest version have been ironed out very nicely.

Fedora(/Red Hat) isn't bad, but the package manager among other things just didn't feel as polished and quick to me.

openSUSE doesn't have nearly as big of a repository as Fedora or Debian but seemed bloated to me and not nearly as user friendly.

-Kevin

there are 0 facts in your post, just your opinion. My fact is that ubuntu is not too much programmers oriented distro, as a proof I stated it doesn't even install common compiler.

opensuse doesn't have big repository, yet it comes on DVD filled with repo data vs CD-ROM of ubuntu? whatever. Have you personally counted number of stuff available for openSUSE vs. ubuntu?

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
openSUSE will come with most stuff out-of-the-box for programmers.

default version of ubuntu doesn't even install g++ compiler

Well if he is writing drivers, a C++ compiler would be rather useless. Even if he wanted to use C++... what? is 'sudo apt-get install g++*' too hard to type?

Ubuntu/Debian based distros are amazing. Even if you have an Intel based graphics card, most of the issues with the latest version have been ironed out very nicely.

Fedora(/Red Hat) isn't bad, but the package manager among other things just didn't feel as polished and quick to me.

openSUSE doesn't have nearly as big of a repository as Fedora or Debian but seemed bloated to me and not nearly as user friendly.

-Kevin

there are 0 facts in your post, just your opinion. My fact is that ubuntu is not too much programmers oriented distro, as a proof I stated it doesn't even install common compiler.

opensuse doesn't have big repository, yet it comes on DVD filled with repo data vs CD-ROM of ubuntu? whatever. Have you personally counted number of stuff available for openSUSE vs. ubuntu?

I see plenty of facts - but if you want to use a personal attack go right on ahead smart guy. There is no need for a C++ compiler when writing drivers (FACT)!

It installs a good amount of compilers that the average developer would want. I then made the point that it isn't that hard to type a 1 line command to get G++ for instance.

My other point was that recommending a different distro because it lacks a default compiler is ludicrous. With the way package managers are these days, it is one command in pretty much everyone distro.

openSUSE does not have NEARLY as extensive a repository or package management system as Ubuntu/Debian. Think about it, there is a reason so many people use Debian - it isn't just for UI.

-Kevin

 

[Crusty]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
openSUSE will come with most stuff out-of-the-box for programmers.

default version of ubuntu doesn't even install g++ compiler

apt-get install build-essential

😉

 

[Markbnj]

Something about distro discussions always brings on the flames. It's like saying you like EA in the gaming forum.

For me the idea of a "programmer friendly" distro is nearly meaningless. All I want is the base operating system. I'll install the other crap I need to do my work, and would rather pick and choose for myself anyway.

 

[sourceninja]

Honestly intalling the build environment by default is silly. How many Linux users need kernel header files and compilers. Most people just want a desktop and some apps. It's trival to install the tools you need. By this logic Microsoft should release window 7 with visual studio built in.

 

[slugg]

Just get a distro that you enjoy using for normal things. Your developer tools can be added easily...

 

[postmortemIA]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Originally posted by: postmortemIA

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
openSUSE will come with most stuff out-of-the-box for programmers.

default version of ubuntu doesn't even install g++ compiler

Well if he is writing drivers, a C++ compiler would be rather useless. Even if he wanted to use C++... what? is 'sudo apt-get install g++*' too hard to type?

Ubuntu/Debian based distros are amazing. Even if you have an Intel based graphics card, most of the issues with the latest version have been ironed out very nicely.

Fedora(/Red Hat) isn't bad, but the package manager among other things just didn't feel as polished and quick to me.

openSUSE doesn't have nearly as big of a repository as Fedora or Debian but seemed bloated to me and not nearly as user friendly.

-Kevin

there are 0 facts in your post, just your opinion. My fact is that ubuntu is not too much programmers oriented distro, as a proof I stated it doesn't even install common compiler.

opensuse doesn't have big repository, yet it comes on DVD filled with repo data vs CD-ROM of ubuntu? whatever. Have you personally counted number of stuff available for openSUSE vs. ubuntu?

I see plenty of facts - but if you want to use a personal attack go right on ahead smart guy. There is no need for a C++ compiler when writing drivers (FACT)!

It installs a good amount of compilers that the average developer would want. I then made the point that it isn't that hard to type a 1 line command to get G++ for instance.

My other point was that recommending a different distro because it lacks a default compiler is ludicrous. With the way package managers are these days, it is one command in pretty much everyone distro.

openSUSE does not have NEARLY as extensive a repository or package management system as Ubuntu/Debian. Think about it, there is a reason so many people use Debian - it isn't just for UI.

-Kevin

Another great argument, then Windows is 95 times better than ubuntu or opensuse, because it has 95 times more users.

OpenSUSE comes with so much stuff by default that you would need to spend whole day doing apt-get and nothing else to get even. C++ compiler was just one obvious example.


Truth is Ubuntu is great starter and everyday distro, so is OpenSUSE. But OpenSUSE has some advantages and shortcomings as well.

I say OpenSUSE comes with some nice tools that you won't even know that they exist if you use Ubuntu.
BTW yast2 is as good as apt-get is.

 

[Crusty]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Originally posted by: postmortemIA

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
openSUSE will come with most stuff out-of-the-box for programmers.

default version of ubuntu doesn't even install g++ compiler

Well if he is writing drivers, a C++ compiler would be rather useless. Even if he wanted to use C++... what? is 'sudo apt-get install g++*' too hard to type?

Ubuntu/Debian based distros are amazing. Even if you have an Intel based graphics card, most of the issues with the latest version have been ironed out very nicely.

Fedora(/Red Hat) isn't bad, but the package manager among other things just didn't feel as polished and quick to me.

openSUSE doesn't have nearly as big of a repository as Fedora or Debian but seemed bloated to me and not nearly as user friendly.

-Kevin

there are 0 facts in your post, just your opinion. My fact is that ubuntu is not too much programmers oriented distro, as a proof I stated it doesn't even install common compiler.

opensuse doesn't have big repository, yet it comes on DVD filled with repo data vs CD-ROM of ubuntu? whatever. Have you personally counted number of stuff available for openSUSE vs. ubuntu?

I see plenty of facts - but if you want to use a personal attack go right on ahead smart guy. There is no need for a C++ compiler when writing drivers (FACT)!

It installs a good amount of compilers that the average developer would want. I then made the point that it isn't that hard to type a 1 line command to get G++ for instance.

My other point was that recommending a different distro because it lacks a default compiler is ludicrous. With the way package managers are these days, it is one command in pretty much everyone distro.

openSUSE does not have NEARLY as extensive a repository or package management system as Ubuntu/Debian. Think about it, there is a reason so many people use Debian - it isn't just for UI.

-Kevin

Another great argument, then Windows is 95 times better than ubuntu or opensuse, because it has 95 times more users.

OpenSUSE comes with so much stuff by default that you would need to spend whole day doing apt-get and nothing else to get even. C++ compiler was just one obvious example.


Truth is Ubuntu is great starter and everyday distro, so is OpenSUSE. But OpenSUSE has some advantages and shortcomings as well.

I say OpenSUSE comes with some nice tools that you won't even know that they exist if you use Ubuntu.
BTW yast2 is as good as apt-get is.

Can you please provide me with a list of what you consider to be so much more than Ubuntu. I find it very hard to believe that it would take a whole day to install the same software using Ubuntu.

There's no reason to have a C++ compiler installed unless your users specifically need them, I consider a server with a build environment a bad idea but on a desktop I definitely have them installed. It takes a matter of minutes to get a get many different programming frameworks installed, a full LAMP stack with one command that just works. All you need to do if you want is tweak the server settings and/or create new virtual hosts.

Ubuntu also has ~26000 packages available while SUSE has 22000. Both a large by amount by comparison anyways so I'll admit that SUSE is comparable, but not quite as expansive.

 

[Woosta]

If you're a novice, Ubuntu
If you're in between, Debian or CentOS
If you're a pro, FreeBSD

 

[postmortemIA]

Originally posted by: Crusty

Originally posted by: postmortemIA

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Originally posted by: postmortemIA

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
openSUSE will come with most stuff out-of-the-box for programmers.

default version of ubuntu doesn't even install g++ compiler

Well if he is writing drivers, a C++ compiler would be rather useless. Even if he wanted to use C++... what? is 'sudo apt-get install g++*' too hard to type?

Ubuntu/Debian based distros are amazing. Even if you have an Intel based graphics card, most of the issues with the latest version have been ironed out very nicely.

Fedora(/Red Hat) isn't bad, but the package manager among other things just didn't feel as polished and quick to me.

openSUSE doesn't have nearly as big of a repository as Fedora or Debian but seemed bloated to me and not nearly as user friendly.

-Kevin

there are 0 facts in your post, just your opinion. My fact is that ubuntu is not too much programmers oriented distro, as a proof I stated it doesn't even install common compiler.

opensuse doesn't have big repository, yet it comes on DVD filled with repo data vs CD-ROM of ubuntu? whatever. Have you personally counted number of stuff available for openSUSE vs. ubuntu?

I see plenty of facts - but if you want to use a personal attack go right on ahead smart guy. There is no need for a C++ compiler when writing drivers (FACT)!

It installs a good amount of compilers that the average developer would want. I then made the point that it isn't that hard to type a 1 line command to get G++ for instance.

My other point was that recommending a different distro because it lacks a default compiler is ludicrous. With the way package managers are these days, it is one command in pretty much everyone distro.

openSUSE does not have NEARLY as extensive a repository or package management system as Ubuntu/Debian. Think about it, there is a reason so many people use Debian - it isn't just for UI.

-Kevin

Another great argument, then Windows is 95 times better than ubuntu or opensuse, because it has 95 times more users.

OpenSUSE comes with so much stuff by default that you would need to spend whole day doing apt-get and nothing else to get even. C++ compiler was just one obvious example.


Truth is Ubuntu is great starter and everyday distro, so is OpenSUSE. But OpenSUSE has some advantages and shortcomings as well.

I say OpenSUSE comes with some nice tools that you won't even know that they exist if you use Ubuntu.
BTW yast2 is as good as apt-get is.

Can you please provide me with a list of what you consider to be so much more than Ubuntu. I find it very hard to believe that it would take a whole day to install the same software using Ubuntu.

There's no reason to have a C++ compiler installed unless your users specifically need them, I consider a server with a build environment a bad idea but on a desktop I definitely have them installed. It takes a matter of minutes to get a get many different programming frameworks installed, a full LAMP stack with one command that just works. All you need to do if you want is tweak the server settings and/or create new virtual hosts.

Ubuntu also has ~26000 packages available while SUSE has 22000. Both a large by amount by comparison anyways so I'll admit that SUSE is comparable, but not quite as expansive.

Ubuntu doesn't provide list of its default installed packages, suse does

here's their list
http://en.opensuse.org/Package_List/11.1/DVD5-i586

btw suse installer if anything lets you install everything/anything you want from the DVD during installation

OpenSUSE i586 DVD: 4.24GB
Ubuntu CD-ROM 0.70GB

 

[Crusty]

That's just a list of all the packages on the DVD. Once your NIC drivers are loaded in Ubuntu you have access to the full online repos.

 

[postmortemIA]

yes, you can download one by one, have fun.

Even that doesn't work well.. unless you like old stuff.

For example, Eclipse and Qt-Creator are ones of best C/C++ development tools
versions on Ubuntu:
qt-creator (1.0.0-0ubuntu3) [universe] IDE for Development with Qt
eclipse (3.2.2-5ubuntu3) [universe] Extensible Tool Platform and Java IDE (more than 3 yrs old!)

on openSuse
qt-creator-1.2.1-16.1.i586.rpm 23-Jul-2009 19:07
eclipse-3.4-229.9.noarch.rpm 02-Jul-2009 17:51

why is it like that? perhaps not many are using ubuntu as development OS, so nobody cares.

Another example, OpenSUSE comes with great Latex support, while Ubuntu has some, but it doesn't install any advanced Latex packages, those are not easy to figure out by their name in apt-get.

 

[Crusty]

My point about the repos was that downloading a huge ISO to install from and then having to upgrade those packages after the install because they've been patched since the ISO was publishes is a rather good way to waste time. With Ubuntu once the install is done you can just open up Synaptic and click away to install all the tools you ever need. What difference does it make if you make those decisions during the install or immediately after the install? Either way you're going to have to wait somewhere along the lines for the installs to complete. Can you even use the desktop OS while the installer is running like the Live CD based Ubuntu installer?

I agree with you about Eclipse support, and from what I can tell it's because of the various Java platforms that can be installed, that being said installing Eclipse from their site is rather simple 😛

We could argue about the finer points forever, when in the end we both know either Suse or Ubuntu will work just fine. Arguing over personal preference is rather pointless anyways.

 

[sourceninja]

I've actually always did my own eclipse installs. I also always install my own firefox. There are just somethings I don't like waiting for my distro to update.