For development it just doesn't matter that much. Version numbers
aside, all Linux distros are 99% the same as far as their individual
software components. For example they all have glibc, they all use
gcc, and they all boot up a Linux kernel.
There are differences however. Do you want to deal with RPMs (RedHat
(Fedora), Suse, Mandriva) or deb packages (Debian, Ubuntu), or skip
the binary dependency madness altogether and just compile stuff from
source(LFS, Gentoo)? Do you want bleeding edge new software(Mandriva,
Fedora), fairly modern software(Ubuntu, Gentoo, LFS) or ultra-stable,
slightly older software(Debian)?
KDE and Gnome will both run on any Linux distro. Same goes for MySQL
and PostgreSQL, Apache, Lighttpd and Mongrel, and most any other
comparison you can think of.
Get a spool of CDs and a burner. Download some ISOs and figure out
what you like best. People will give you their opinion but then
that's all it is, an opinion. Form your own I say.
And don't forget there is life beyond Linux. I would definitely
choose Linux or a Mac over Windows for a desktop, but I would choose
FreeBSD over pretty much anything for a router.
Do you want to deal with RPMs (RedHat
(Fedora), Suse, Mandriva) or deb packages (Debian, Ubuntu), or skip
the binary dependency madness altogether and just compile stuff from
source(LFS, Gentoo)?
I had some good experience with .deb-based distros: Debian as server, Ubuntu for the desktop. My experience with RPMs has been... not so good
The only compelling RPM choice currently seems to be SuSE, but now there's that commotion there about the deal with Microsoft, and SLED obviously not being free. The condition of Ubuntu is definitely preferable in that respect.
The only interesting alternative suggested in this and the other recent thread is Gentoo. I never realized it was used by non-ricers! (really, j/k)
Anyways some serious people seem to like it, and that's enough to put it on my checklist for some future date.
WRT now, I'm probably going to go with KUbuntu (Dapper or Eft) because I already had some good experience with it, and also some of the team members are going to be introduced to Linux for the first time on this team, so we should go with the easiest Linux flavor.
Do you want bleeding edge new software(Mandriva,
Fedora), fairly modern software(Ubuntu, Gentoo, LFS) or ultra-stable,
slightly older software(Debian)?
Actually I didn't have any problems installing even the most recent software on Ubuntu. Granted, Mandriva might make it easier - each package management system can be oriented towards a different timeframe of maturity.
In any case, it seems a Ruby/Rails development station shouldn't require installations of the very latest software. The only place where you might want bleeding edge is maybe the Ruby packages, and that commonly goes either through gems or just downloading .rb files, so the distro and its PM system doesn't matter anyway.
- Fedora Core 6 32 bit (at office on Acer Aspire 9510 with 2Gb ram and Intel core duo processor 2 Ghz)
- Mandriva 2007 64 bit (at home on Acer Aspire 5030 with 1 Gb ram and AMD Turion 64 1.8 Ghz)
For RoR developments purpose the two workstations are very good, I never had problems (my surprise is that ruby and rails are running on 64 bit with mysql 5 64 bit very, very, very well)
(really, j/k)