[wplug] Re: which linux is for me

[Bill Moran]

Steve Bierly <s_bierly at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> I have a few questions anyone who has answers please
> get back to me. What linux should I get if I am going
> to be a programmer.
> I am leaning towards red hat. But I am not sure and I
> read that linux does not support all computer
> hardware. Could I use a brand new computer or should I
> dig out a stone age computer? Would it work on a
> laptop? Truth be told I am just starting and hearing
> many opinions so experienced users please help. If you
> could give me a link that would have system
> requirements.

There's an interesting phenomonon in the open source world.
Basically, the biggest advantage of OS is there are so many
choices, but the biggest disadvantage of OS is the same
thing: too many choices.

As a result, when you ask "which Linux should I use?" you'll
get a different answer from each person you ask.  This is
very different from the Microsoft world, where you have very
few choices, but it's different in another way.

MS Windows doesn't really operation on a philosophy.  The MS
Windows philosophy is pretty much "Do whatever we must in order
to ensure people keep using our stuff".  That's nice to know
if you're an invester, but as a user, it's not telling you much.

On the other hand, OS softwares operate on philosophies.
That's why there are so many Linux distros - one for each
philosophy.

I've come to realize that I (and many other people) have been
recommending software incorrectly.  Generally, we say things
like, "Oh, you're new, you should use Knoppix because it's
simplest"  ... but that misses the point.

To choose an OSS operating system, you should look deep inside
yourself and figure out what kind of person you are.  Then you
should go out and find software that has the same _philosophy_
about software that you do.

It's a time-consuming process, and it's not always easy, but
you'll be happier in the long run, if you ask me.  Don't forget
to review the various *BSD OSes when doing your research.

For example, if you believe strongly in the GNU philosophy, then
you probably want to use Debian.

OpenBSD believes that security is more important than anything
else.  They will sacrifice ease of use, popularity, and just about
everything else to ensure that OpenBSD is secure.  If you feel
that strongly about security, you should use OpenBSD.

The FreeBSD project emphasizes correctness and reliability over
most other things.  FreeBSD focuses on making the OS easy to
administer first, and easy to use second.  They consider security
an important part of the system, but not to the end of all other
things.  FreeBSD developers tend to be arrogant perfectionists,
and that's pretty much my own personality.  That's why I use
FreeBSD.  I believe FreeBSD is a technically superior system,
but more important (to me) is that I believe that FreeBSD will
_continue_ to be technically superior, and I like the approach
the developers are taking to accomplish this.  Thus, even when
FreeBSD doesn't work like I want it to, it generally doesn't
upset me too much, because I understand _why_ it doesn't.

These are just three examples out of many, many choices.  You'll
have to do your own research, but I think you'll find that it's
worth it.  Feel free to ask on this list if you have specific
questions about specific distros, as there's an expert for just
about every distro on the list

To the point of your original question: just about any Unix-like
OS (technically, these are called POSIX systems) will work well
for learning to program.  Programming is an integral part of the
Unix philosophy that just about all OSS share.

Good Luck!

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com