Ask HN: What's the best Linux distro for fullstack development? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What's the best Linux distro for fullstack development?

9 pointsArisaka119 comments

I've been learning React with TypeScript on my Windows 10 desktop but I have some new needs: 1) To become more familiar with Linux and 2) My desktop doesn't meet the Windows 11 requirements.

So my choice was to either try out WSL2 or get into Linux. I don't play video games (which is why people usually stay on Windows) and I don't use any commercial software that requires Windows (I'm not doing web design and the little I do I work with Figma or something similar).

I used to work in IT and yes I know I should've gotten into Linux earlier but my job involved Windows workstations and Windows servers. With that said, I don't mind if I have to read documentation to get things working because that's what developers do anyways.

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Distros are mostly the same, there are only minor differences between them. Those differences amount to large personal preferences among some people (don't walk into a systemd bar wearing a Void Linux ballcap or you'll get beat up), but yeah, they're mostly the same.

To really grok this, try different Linux distros for yourself.

Since you don't have a lot of experience with Linux yet I would suggest Ubuntu (pick the latest version over the LTS one) since it has great documentation and instructions on how to install just about anything.

If you want more up to date programs might also consider Linux Mint, Sometimes Ubuntu is a bit behind the curve on languages and such Mint is also Debian based so a lot of Ubuntu's help applies to mint and the mint support community is also pretty strong.

I started with Ubuntu for my development computer and am now running Mint because I needed more recent versions to test with. The servers are running ubuntu server though (since I try to develop ahead of the version on the server) so it works out.

One of the main difference between Ubuntu and Mint is the graphical desktop environment as well, isn't it? As far as I know, Ubuntu uses Unity whereas Mint offers 3 flavors: Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce. All those 3 DE-s give a more Windows-like user experience and probably make the transition easier for that reason alone.

Pop!_OS is another flavor of Ubuntu (just like Mint) tailored for developers. If I were to start with Linux today, as a developer, I'd probably give it a try.

For hardcore mode, pick Arch Linux, as this is where you will probably end up distrohopping eventually if you like to tinker with your system.

I agree, it doesn't matter much. Just like frameworks and programming languages, they may be considered boring and aren't being hyped up, but the stable options are the safest. Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, OpenSuse and Fedora are go tos. When starting out you want information that is easy to find, I can personally attest that you will easily find information with those distros.

The bigger the distro, the more official support there is as well, instead of relying on community versions. Ubuntu and Fedora get a lot of dev love.

If you are willing to read up a bit more and re-install a few times, Arch Linux is another distro with a lot of community information online. But honestly for work, I would stick to old reliable Ubuntu.

Put all the distros you're considering on to note cards and shuffle them. What ever is on top is the best one.

I doubt it matters much, right?

I would say one thing to consider is maybe getting the same or similar distro that it will be running on in PRD. This can help you eliminate any sort of bugs that might only happen in PRD due to package differences.

Would using containers like Docker soften the PRD distro requirement?

Only if you're using the same distro in the container as in dev, or if you're running your dev version in a container. I wouldn't call it a requirement either. These types of bugs are usually fairly rare.

PopOS from System76 is nice https://pop.system76.com/

Ubuntu is good because its popular, which means its well supported and you'll find instructions to get just about anything running. Ubuntu is based on Debian, so just about any Debian based distro will benefit from those docs. Fedora is great too and also just werkz.

That's true, but in distros based on Archlinux you have AUR packages. It has practically anything you might need, even strange things that you won't find in any other distro. I personally recommend Garuda Linux.

I'm pretty happy with Ubuntu for developing. It's a much better experience than Windows 10.

Arch Manjaro with Xfce is my hearty recommendation for you

I would also like to know anything rhel based.

If you want to work in a RHEL-like environment (use a similar package manager, configuration, and so on), then you could look at Fedora (Workstation edition), which is in the same branch of the Linux family tree as RHEL.

Fedora/RHEL uses RPMs to install software, so you can check in advance whether your favourite application offers an RPM. Most of the major dev tools do, including VS Code, etc.

But whichever distro you choose for your desktop OS, you can still try out other distros by running them inside a container.

Linus Torwalds says he uses Fedora. I don't see why you would use Fedora instead of Centos / Oracle Linux / RHEL free dev subscription. Maybe because Fedora gets the cool things first before other get them. For testing.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu.

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