Programming

Hi,

Can anyone please tell me, what is the best Linux distribution for Software Development.

Thanks,
Philip.

There's no difference really. They all come with the usual tools for development (gcc, binutils, make, ...) (except maybe Live-CD only distributions like Knoppix)

Gentoo is handy for programmers because it is guaranteed to have everything needed to build its own software.

Most distros install gcc optionally. Gentoo builds its own software from scratch, hence always has it. It also always installs headers for every library; other distros make you hunt down and install seperate dev packages for each library you want to program with.

Gentoo seems like a pain with its un-compiled binaries.

It hasn't given me nearly as much trouble as RPM. Packages don't refuse to install over tiny incremental changes to libc, the installer won't cough up its own skull if you upgrade your kernel, and Gentoo's basic package database is so extensive that I almost never need third-party overlays to find what I want. It's also far more easily browsable than the general anarchy involved in binary packages.

Besides, you asked what was best for programming. Binary distros work so hard to separate the programming side from the binary side because it's a big, awkward thing no matter how you cut it, there's bound to be a tradeoff.