What do you think would be nice in a developer centric Linux distro?

inspired by Mike Bybee's

Mike BybeeFollow

Strong opinions, loosely typed.

Post

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THE MUST HAVES

• 1) The option to choose your desktop environment
• 2) AppImage , Flatpak. I could say more and more but that would make the distro more heavy
• 3) A software center similar to Discover or the Pop shop. With flatpak , appimage , & homebrew , and a Software center [!And maybe pacman!], you can install almost anything ,without hassle.
• 4) Some sort of automated install. Maybe you edit a config file and then start the install script. The script installs based upon your config settings.
• 5) scripts to install languages eg: install-java or install-ruby
• 6) [! Nixos(https://nixos.org)] utilities such as

nix-shell

or

nixpkgs

THE MAYBE'S

• 1) Rolling release schedule
• 2) ssh support by default
• 3) maybe different editions , say Webdev edition or Database edition , you get the idea.
• 4) Nitrux Utilities , allowing things like pacman and Arch repos
• 5) Jing os style desktop environment. Something with a similar dock and a Mac os style navbar in the top. I also really like the idea of a launchpad. Something similar to Cutefish or Cyber os ? Basically somethings mac os style , with windows things like the menus in taskbar , being moved to the top navabr
• 6) Ravenport package repository ] It seems to be the most up to date package repo I can find
• 7) glibc . Still exploring its value , but raven ports needs it.
• 8) Nixos base. This could help with having nixos utilities

THE NO NO'S

• 1) a package repository where you have to compile everything yourself after installation
• 2) a command line installation .Instead the Calamares installer sounds great
• 3) Lots of packages installed by default. The only packages installed that aren't the package managers would be: vim , nano , and fish
• 4) coming with language specific tools like npm , yarn , or irb. While this could be helpful if you are a javascript or a ruby developer , It's just bloatware if you are a C++ developer.

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This list will continue to be updated in the future. Please comment your ideas. If you have a idea about how to actually create this , and get it setup , Please comment it below.

Comments

[Giovanni Cortés]

For me is not necessary, because with Arch you can get that and is very customizable.

[Pandademic]

Great! Thanks for the feedback ! Personally , I feel Arch is hard to install & that makes it harder to get setup.

[Pandademic]

My main problems with arch are as follows:
1) the difficulty of the installation, Which could be fixed with a gui installer
2) Forgive me if I am wrong The compile it yourself aspect of AUR

[Giovanni Cortés]

If you a developer, the instalation should be relative easy following some videos, or there are Calamares installers for Arch Linux, or you could use ArcoLinux, that is like an Arch with installer.

AUR use just scripts to install no official packages in your Arch System, sometimes you need to compile something because it gets from source, but you only need to type makepkg -si or you can use some AUR helper

[Pandademic]

Thanks , Archcraft is good too. Could you tell me a Calamares installer to arch? Thanks for the info on AUR too. I will update the list with AUR.

[Heiker]

An installation process that is automated. I really don't mind if it's text based or has a graphical interface. As long as the tedious steps are all automated, it's all good.

Semi-rolling release model would be nice. I mean, give me small security updates for many months then maybe 2 or 3 big updates a year. No clean re-install for big updates, I hate those.

Offer a minimal image, for those who already know how to assemble their own desktop environment.

Offer scripts to setup dedicated tools for a language or workflow. I don't work on java, but I have been told that is a pain to setup on linux, so it would be nice if there was some script that does everything for you. So instead of having a lot of programs installed what you could do is create scripts that can install those tools for you.

[Pandademic]

Great Idea(s)! Will update this list! I agree about the huge updates , by the way

[brandon_wallace]

Any Linux distribution that allows you to install the development tools that you need.

[Pandademic]

Great ! So you don't need anything specifically?

[brandon_wallace]

No.
You have a lot of distributions to choose from. A majority of them will work well for doing development. I recommend using one of the major Linux distributions that have been around for a while.

[Pandademic]

Could you give me some examples?

[Pandademic]

Also , Is their anything in particular that makes these less optimal to use for development. Eg: no support for a certian format ?

[brandon_wallace]

Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSUSE, LinuxMint, MX Linux, Pop!_OS, etc should be okay.

None are less optimal for development. You just need to select the distribution and desktop (KDE, Xfce, Gnome, etc) you like best.