Well, I've been teaching myself a bit of C++ and decided to dust off my old (well, still fracking good) PC and get that going with Ubuntu.

The main reason was that the IDEs for Mac are not that good. I really like Code::blocks but the Mac version just didn't seem to work very well.

Got it installed this evening and I've got my IDE set up with the compiler and everything.

Since the last version I tried (Hardy Heron?, what was the one before that?) it has improved massively! The application finder program is brilliant! Like the app store but for Linux.

I'm tempted to get it set up properly now (i.e. second monitor, speakers, etc...) Maybe even a bluetooth card to get my tragic macpad working with it.

Anyway, I much prefer it to Windows Vista which is what was on this PC beforehand.

Also love the fact that the graphics card drivers had been detected before it finished turning on and up popped a window asking to install the latest drivers

<-- Happy bunny (erm... penguin)

Yay!

Nice work sir.

I've got ubuntu on a couple of pcs and ubuntu nbr on my wife's netbook. It's basically there now and they've ironed out any issues they had for me.

There's no need for windows for anything other than specific software now. So many people would be better off with Linux, it's ridiculous. Pc manufacturers should offer it as a reduced priced option.

Which IDEs did you try, on OS X, out of interest?

Code::blocks
Eclipse
NetBeans (I think)
and XCode

It could be a lack of my understanding of C++ but even with the compiler installed some of them didn't even compile a basic Hello World. They didn't like some of the includes and even cout wasn't allowed etc...

With some of the others it's just personal preference.

I agree. The pre-installed software is great (Open Office, FireFox, Transmission (which happens to be my fave P2P client), etc...)

Also, the main problem I had in the past was not knowing how to install things etc...

Whilst I do now know how to do that (from learning at work) it now isn't that essential as the available packages do it all themselves.

That's the biggest thing they've done, I love the fact you just search for say, "php editor" and you just click on the one you like and it's installed.

My IDE of choice has to be Eclipse, but I'm using it less and less.

I'm still doing an amount of programming but find a combination of TextMate + Terminal to be just about all I need...

When I was doing C I used Eclipse and that seemed to work OK. Had to install a new module for C though...

I'm no programmer, but Ubuntu has improved exponentially with each version. It's good to see. I just wish the Linux community would stop bitching about it.

Whilst I agree wholeheartedly, I'm not sure any OS community is without a large contingent of fanbois, moaners and trolls.

Definitely!

Choosing an OS is a lot like choosing a religion. No matter which one you choose there will be people who praise you, people who call you a sinner and people who tell you it's the right one but the wrong flavour.

I love Ubuntu, as Gav says it improves exponentially with each version and now looks great out-of-the-box (of course they borrowed more than a few things from OS X).

It's almost enough to tear me away from KDE and openSUSE 11.3. Almost.

Nice to hear it's coming on - I last tried it on my father's PC about 4 years ago. I'm sure lots has changed, for the better from the sounds of it.

Give it a go again. Personally, I think it only became usable about a year ago. I do still have issues with the graphics card on one pc, but it still works, just doesn't have the special effects.

I used to use Ubuntu (7.04), but decided full on Debian was better (Lenny). as Ubuntu has improved it has done the opposite on my laptop (sluggish, not detecting correct screen res etc.), now use Fedora 14 which runs perfectly.