Which flavor of Linux should I use for a Rails dev box?

rubyonrails-talk
1

Hey everyone,

I'm looking to set up a development server for my Rails project and have a shiny new hard drive. Which version of Linux is the best to use? Or does it not really matter?

Thanks in advance for any help.

2

I am partial to Ubuntu Server 10.04 (current version). Given, I was new to Linux the first time I set it up for a production server and overall pretty easy to deal with.

3

I'm looking to set up a development server for my Rails project and have a shiny new hard drive. Which version of Linux is the best to use?

I use Debian.

Or does it not really matter?

Versioning aside, every Linux OS looks 99.99% identical compared to any other.. same glibc, same gcc, same Linux kernel.

I find it's the package manager that makes me like to use a certain flavor of Linux or not. I like dpkg/apt, so I like Debian and it's family of off-shoots like Ubuntu. I hate rpm with every bone in my body, so I steer clear of RedHat, Fedora, Suse, and Mandake (or whatever they're calling it this week), etc.

One thing I also always look for is if it makes me install an X server or not. If it does then I'd never use it. I like my development machines to be headless, giving all the cpu and memory to my development.

4

Debian has superior package management (<http://debian.org>, <http://www.debian.org/misc/children-distros&gt;\) and a very large collection of packages.

There is, by definition, little or no difference between distributions with respect to Rails. You install the same gems.

/Allan

5

Jeff Mapleberry wrote:

Hey everyone,

I'm looking to set up a development server for my Rails project and have a shiny new hard drive. Which version of Linux is the best to use? Or does it not really matter?

Thanks in advance for any help.

I use Ubuntu. In general, it doesn't seem to matter much; pick a distro you otherwise like.

Best,