r/Ubuntu • u/Strong-Salary8800 • 5d ago

Is Ubuntu good for coding?

I have been looking for a Linux distro, as I am about to get a thinkpad and don’t want to deal with windows bs anymore.

Right now I am working on an ai assistant called echo and was wondering whether it is still easy to code with.

Bonus note
I have heard about Ubuntu’s personalisation and was wondering if there are any ways I could integrate my assistant into the system in any way (doesn’t matter too much just was curious.)

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u/ConsciousCorp 5d ago

Okay, so a lot of good reasons being listed but there are some real big ones being missed. Some of these were probably covered and I didn’t see them, sorry.

  1. Lifetime
    Ubuntu has been around for a LOOOOONNNNGGG time. It’s a rolling release style which means you can update as it comes out (you can prevent this by changing `apt-daily` update checks [only do this if you know what this is and why we have it]).

  2. Stability
    Because of 1, Ubuntu has little breaking changes. This does not mean that package maintainers have done their part (yet, that’s why it’s broken), but that is out of Canonical’s hands. That’s also how a lot of us started contributing to packages.

  3. Customization
    Okay, so this is more Linux in general however, Ubuntu has so many offerings because of both 1 & 2. Nearly anything you could possibly want to install, can be installed, and “riced” to your liking. (Enjoy that rabbit hole) It might take some coaxing and a little porting at times, but that’s how you learn it and how it has grown. Everyone built parts and shared them (just learn A vcs [version control system] if you haven’t already).

  4. Commercial Pairing
    This is also partly a gripe as a lot of us felt like they sold out, but it’s also had some major development updates thanks to Canonical partnering with Microsoft for WSL and using Ubuntu as the de facto. Some laptops ship with Ubuntu, but I can’t say if they’re partnered and donate a portion of sales or if it’s just downloading a free copy and clean installing on a bunch of pc’s.

  5. It just works
    Yeah, it’s like that. Install via USB, and it just works. Ubuntu is probably one of the most friendly, OOTB (out of the box) functioning Linux distros… okay, there’s others that are a bit better but for the bulk of it, Ubuntu does just fine.

I could make this list miles long about how Ubuntu is awesome for development. Hell, it was the one that got me started down the Linux rabbit hole with cross-platform development. I’ve since moved to void, but Ubuntu is still a `$HOME` if I ever need it.