

Ask HN: What is the best debian like linux distro? - samikc

I want to move my laptop from Windows Vista to a Linux distro (like Debian for ease of apt-get like installation management). I am a developer and my wife is a Facebook user (with lot of friends and a bunch of Zynga games that she plays). We rely on the laptop solely for our purpose. So here are the needs and wants:<p>1. Easy to use for a non programmer. Who does not know anything related to software.
2. A programmer paradise, should have ease of setup: Java, Ruby and Python. Apache web server and Tomcat eclipse etc. Version control like svn and git.(Please bare with me if I have mentioned some trivial things here)<p>3. Last but not the least easy to install and maintain.<p>So which Linux distro should I go with?<p>Thanks for your input in advance.
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teresko
Ease of use does not come from a distro. It comes from how good you are at
setting up desktop environment.

As for developers paradise, i honestly doubt that debian-like system would be
what you need. If you are serious about writing code, then you most likely
will require custom compilations of programs. And ability to recompile them
with same setting, when new version comes out (and as soon as possible).

Additionally, most of the "user friendly" debians have this notion of
automatic updates. I honestly hope that you can see what harm can come from
this.

I would recommend for you to check some other distros and not to limit
yourself to debians.

P.S. if something is "hard" to install or maintain, it only means that you
have decided not to send time on understanding how it works.

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chmielewski
I expected you to include something about why you were looking for something
"Debian-like" due to Debian not being an option. My answer to your question,
is of course, Debian!

