CODEWITHSUNDEEP
linuxunixoperating-system
israkir
israkir

Reputation: 2131

Any lightweight *nix environment for programming

Is there any lightweight *nix OS dedicated for programming purposes?

Actually, I have a full installation of Mandriva in my computer; but sometimes in Windows I must use Virtualbox to run some *nix OS.

Because I only need the OS for only programming in this case, so I just want to ask you about it. Of course, I searched about this on the net; but I also want to have your opinions...

Basically I need C/C++, Java, Python environment.

Upvotes: 7

Views: 9354

Answers (9)

Muhammed Hassan
Muhammed Hassan

Reputation: 1

I recommend trisquel mini is the best which is also ubuntu based. I am using it.I installed eclipse ide in it with 1 gb ram. It uses only 200 mb for running os for more information visit my https://hassan004.blogspot.com/2022/01/weight-linux-distro-trisquel-mini.html

Upvotes: 0

g5thomas
g5thomas

Reputation: 315

It really depends on what you are trying to do in terms of development.

Questions I would ask myself before development.

a) Who is the audience of the applications?

b) Is it a web based application or a desktop application?

c) How heavy is the number crunching part?

The first questions sometimes dictate the programming language you will be using. If it is for system administrator, I believe you will be writing a console application with command line interface, that the choice would be using programming language like shell scripts languages, C, C++, and a few other script languages like Python and Ruby.

For second question, If you are doing a web based application or mobile application, you would need to get the SDK with the libraries, and it would pretty much dictate the environment you will be working on.

For the number crunching part, you would need to look into libraries like CUDA or Fortran libraries that are designed for these type of applications.

Personally I use the Gentoo and Puppy Linux distro. If you need do C, Java and python, you could just download the stage3 tar ball of Gentoo linux, download the SDK from Oracle, and you are set to go.

Sometimes people want to do the developement in Windows environment, and don't want to miss the Unix tools, using cygwin and mingw in Windows environment would be viable options.

Upvotes: 0

Hai Vu
Hai Vu

Reputation: 40773

Don't forget about Cygwin, which gives you a Unix-like environment right within your Windows box.

Upvotes: 1

Teddy
Teddy

Reputation: 6163

I'd use something like GRML.

Upvotes: 0

asveikau
asveikau

Reputation: 40254

I have a Debian install with X, windowmaker, firefox, vim, gcc, make and dependencies. Also, source control tools. Not much more, other than stuff that's useful in shell scripts. About 1.4G used on disk. Boots quickly. Very little BS involved.

I used to use OpenBSD on my old laptop. Similar to the above, but even more minimalist. You upgrade the OS with tar and patch. :-) Very nice, very small. Only reason I switched away from it is because I got a new machine which needed ndiswrapper for wifi...

PS: seems like this should be a community wiki...

Upvotes: 2

Andrey Vlasovskikh
Andrey Vlasovskikh

Reputation: 16848

The only Linux distro you should use is Arch Linux. Please read why it is so great for developers :)

I'm an Arch Linux user, so my opinion may be biased.

Upvotes: 9

P Shved
P Shved

Reputation: 99354

Actually, a machine that you do development on shouldn't be lightweight. It should be heavy. full of compilers, interpreters, profilers, debuggers, IDEs, editors, benchmarks, checked-out code from repos, development versions of system libraries, test suites, generated large test files, backup tools, virtual machines, chroots, music to set-up comfort environment, mail, office suite to do the paperwork.

I mean, install Putty and connect to your machine (a), or do all development on virtual machine (b), that is kept on external hard drive (that's what I did, when I needed this), so you can use it everywhere where VirtualBox can run.

As for linuxes, I personally would like to use Gentoo Linux, as it can be customized to be lightweight. But unless you're really experienced with all linux administration stuff, customization may take a lot of time. So as a (c) variant, I'd advise to use any distribution (like your Mandriva), because normally base system takes about 10% of "weight" that you need for development on top of that.

And, by the way, boot speed is irrelevant on VirtualBox, since you can save virtual machine state entirely on hard drive and restore it within seconds.

Upvotes: 6

jcrossley3
jcrossley3

Reputation: 11764

I recommend xubuntu. I keep a full programming environment on a 4GB thumb drive with me at all times... just in case. :-)

Upvotes: 2

MattBelanger
MattBelanger

Reputation: 5350

What about something like Puppy or DSL?

They aren't dedicated to programming, but they are small and lightweight.

Upvotes: 0

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