Which Linux Distro will be best suited for development

[Shanpav]

Hello,
I am using Windows XPSP3 but I find very liitle Development tools like Visual studio ,Borland, Adobe etc MiniGw are present for it, GNU Compilers and GDB full fledged versions are net avalible for Windows, so I want to install Linux distro which will have many varieties of Programming tools and enviroments IDE's, Which distro will be good Hardore likes Archs or Normal Like Ubuntu, Fedora, Mandriva etc, I am basically into C,C++,PHP, Java ,Python, Javascript,Database Programming .
What you guys recommend for me should I stick to Windows or go with both as my target is Web applications and Platform Independent Developement.I may left Platform Independent side but the tools hould help me in writing efficient codes and maintain a Good standard and ,also the Desktop enviroment either GNOME or KDE.

[BlaineSch]

All web ones id stick with Windows. Just because you want your things to be IE compatiable which is only available on Windows platforms. And like 75%+ of the web is IE id stick with that.

You can install software on more linux versions. I have a Mandrivia one and I like it a ton. It is only the second one I have tried tho but I like it.

You might try and dual boot it?

[WingedPanther]

MinGW + MSYS gives you a complete development environment in Windows. wxDev-C++, Code::Blocks, etc are other options for C/C++ development.

The operating system doesn't really impact how well you can do development, but Windows makes you work harder to find tools.

[BlaineSch]

I think I may have found an IE for linux which means you can do all your cross browser testing.

Installation - IEs4Linux

I will try it when I get back to my dorm but it looks good.

[Hiram]

All web ones id stick with Windows. Just because you want your things to be IE compatiable which is only available on Windows platforms. And like 75%+ of the web is IE id stick with that.

You can install software on more linux versions. I have a Mandrivia one and I like it a ton. It is only the second one I have tried tho but I like it.

You might try and dual boot it?

Actually, that's not true. I saw a package not long ago that lets you install versions 4-7 of IE under Linux. From a web dev perspective, this is even better than Windows. You can test ALL versions of IE that way, which is something you can't really do under Windows unless I'm mistaken.

As for a good version for development, they're all general systems really, it's more your job to tailor your distro to what you need. I use Ubuntu on my main computer and Slax on another, and they're both great.

[Shanpav]

Thanks Everbody ,you all helped me in different way, by the way i want to know does i have to check and Test with every Web Browser like SAfari, Chrome, firefox, , IExplorer, Opera etc and how can I check it as Safari for windows is different from OSX version etc. Can I found some emulating Softwares to do so.
Thanks

[BlaineSch]

You can download Safari for windows.

Apple - Safari - Introducing Safari 4 - See the web in a whole new way

[Jordan]

I think I may have found an IE for linux which means you can do all your cross browser testing.

Installation - IEs4Linux

I will try it when I get back to my dorm but it looks good.

You can install IE6 using Wine in Linux. If your not familiar with Wine you can purchase Crossover which will install it for you. It runs just as bad on Linux as it does in Windows.

I don't think Wine can run IE7 or IE8 though.

[WingedPanther]

Generally, I test FireFox and IE. If you want to be thorough, add Opera and Safari, but they are a very small market share and code that works in FF will usually work for them as well.

[BlaineSch]

Generally, I test FireFox and IE. If you want to be thorough, add Opera and Safari, but they are a very small market share and code that works in FF will usually work for them as well.

Yea, I do not think I have ever had to debug Safari or Opera if FF and IE 6+ work. But its still good to know they work there as well.