This is a complex question. There are many right answers. bediger is right, in that Arch and Slackware will be by far the most powerful and flexible tool. However, distrubtions like Ubuntu have by far the easiest use and set up. If you are new to Linux, going to Arch wouldn't be impossible, but it would be incredibly difficult. I personally would recommend Ubuntu. It is very easy to use, customizable, and has great package management. I text edit in Vim, run a LAMP server, run my programs from Terminal, and customize my shortcuts via the Ubuntu menu for workspace management. My experience with Fedora is limited, as is mine with SUSE (though mine with SUSE was negative). You can email me at [email protected] if you need more help or have more questions.

Thanks for your reply. I am familiar with ubuntu and its a great Linux distro. The only problem I have is slow internet speed (i live in a developing country). It feels annoying to download heavy packages e.g Qt and java sdk. I prefer a distro which i have to download it once and comes pre-installed with essential programming packages i.e it should be specific to computer programming.

I'd go with either Arch or Slackware. The folks behind Slackware shoot for robustness, which sometimes means "not the latest versions". The Arch people shoot for bleeding edge, which can be nice from a developer's perspective.

What type of programming? What are you aiming for? I'd generally pick something light and stable, so you are on the same platform as some of your customers, and you can easily run VM for the rest, or you're writing for the web and none of this matters.

quite honestly, any of them.

all the "big ones" i.e. debian/*buntu, fedora/redhat, etc. will have (nearly) any language's compiler/toolset in their package manager, and therefore just a couple minutes away from install. and even if they didn't, they're 2 google searches away from a download and install.

so, you're in luck! take your pick and dive in :)

Slackware