The Student Room Group

Why is having a Linux OS better for programming and/or doing a CS degree?

Or is this wrong, or does it depend entirely on the situation? Very noob-like with this sort of thing so be gentle with the big words! :smile:
Reply 1
Where are you getting this information from lol.

The OS you have means nothing, as long as you have a decent computer and a drive to learn then you're good.
(edited 8 years ago)
It isn't.
False information created by biased individuals who seem to have this unjustified hate against Windows.
Reply 3
Windows is completely fine, Linux is only good if you're using a decade old computer.
Original post by Async
Where are you getting this information from lol.

The OS you have means nothing, as long as you have a decent computer and a drive to learn then you're good.

Linux systems can make things far easier for development, and it's a valuable skill to have for when you go into industry.

Original post by Jared44
It isn't.
False information created by biased individuals who seem to have this unjustified hate against Windows.

It's not false at all.

Original post by icesquid
Windows is completely fine, Linux is only good if you're using a decade old computer.

So incredibly wrong...
Reply 5
Original post by Push_More_Button
Linux systems can make things far easier for development, and it's a valuable skill to have for when you go into industry.


It's not false at all.


So incredibly wrong...


Please, explain to me how it is incredibly wrong?
Original post by icesquid
Please, explain to me how it is incredibly wrong?


Because Linux is certainly not only good if you're using a decade old computer. Let's take it all the way to the extreme and look at the typical operating system of super computers. And now public servers on the internet. Why would they be using Linux on big powerful servers? Because it's awesome. And looking at the supported list of OS's for the tiny Raspberry Pi it's Linux, because it's awesome. Want to spin up a cloud server? Linux is cheaper.

So let's jump into reasons why a developer would use Linux:

It's free.

It's very common in industry.

Support for most programming languages.

Many applications and libraries are developed natively for Linux.

Linux has a better command line.

Very easy to knock up quick scripts in Bash.

Linux has better package managers that help a lot. Need Python installing?sudo yum install python. Need a compiler? sudo apt-get install g++. Dependencies are managed for you with some intelligence.

There's many different distributions of Linux so you can find something that suits you.

Linux feels better for development. It gives you the option to choose an environment that suits you and your workflow. It's not a single operating system as the different distros can work differently and can be tweaked based on personal preferences.

Considering more computer systems run Linux than windows, it would be silly not not get accustomed to how it works. The thing with Linux is the fact that it is strongly focused to being open source meaning that people can collaborate together on projects. Without this collaboration we will continue to have large corporations producing mediocre products (Apple) because they are monopolies and stamp out smaller developers.

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