FCC and web development with Ubuntu OS?

I had put in a good number of hours on FCC in 2015 but then I changed jobs and also bought myself a laptop running Ubuntu 16.04. I was learning the basics of Python and thought it best to use a Linux distribution. My question is, would it be a good idea to pursue web development using Ubuntu as a primary OS? Is there anyone else doing the same?

Your choice of OS shouldn’t be a deciding or limiting factor. To get started, all you really need is a text editor and a web browser.

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I’m doing the same, and it’s deliberate - I wasn’t particularly experienced with terminal before FCC, and it’s very important skill because you’ll need it for backend (Node.js), git etc. Development feels at home when using it on Linux.

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I started web development with windows. Personally, I faced a number of challenges. I did some development php and I had difficulties getting my servers to run correctly. For the past year or so, I’ve been working in node, and I’ve had issues trying to get things to install correctly. Again, this is only my experience.

I moved to a linux distribution and I haven’t had nearly the number of problems. There is a little bit of a learning curve in terms of the bash shell vs windows command prompt, but there are so many resources available on the subject that it really isn’t a big deal.

Another positive for learning to work with the shell is that many web hosts are linux based. While there are some graphical interfaces in cpanel that help you manage files and such, there may be times that you will have to issue commands via the shell, so the knowledge about the shell commands in development may be helpful when it comes to deployment and maintenance.

However, there are plenty of developers using windows or OSX, so the operating system in theory, shouldn’t make a difference.

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I have both a Windows PC and a Linux PC running ubuntu 14.04. Ubuntu is the PC I do most development on but by design FCC suggests tools for coding which are platform independent and web based. codepen, cloud9, github, heroku and now glitch.
For learning Angular I prefer to use the Windows PC as I like using the VS Code IDE for that, plus I have VisualStudio installed there.

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It does not really matter what OS you are using.
I use Ubuntu 16 exclusively, and recently I have completed FCC FrontEnd certification without any problems.
Other people use Win or OSX and it’s all about personal choice.

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Thank you @pilgrim011 , @salasy, @sceadgugenga, @JohnnyBizzel and @mattsouthward … Really helps to know that there are a LOT of developers using a Linux distro for development… :slight_smile:

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In fact some hosting companies do not have a cPanel or any of their equivalences. Everything is done by SFTP and SSH. An example of this is Digital Ocean. The skills you learn using a Linux shell program can be very valuable down the road.

I dual-boot Win10/Ubuntu 16.04 desktop.

On Win10, I have a full web platform of virtualized servers using VMWare all running Ubuntu 14.04/16.04 server. I use github so I can check my code in/out regardless of which OS I’m booted into. I rarely use Windows anymore, usually only when I need to use Word/Excel (I hate using them the Linux versions) or graphics software.

Many years ago I switched from shared hosting over to a VPS. Even though it costs me a lot more a month, I did it so that I could get production experience on the command-line and maintaining an environment outside of WHM/CPanel (which I do still use).

I worked a lot with Windows-based architecture in large corporations and yes, have always hated developing on that platform and haven’t touched them since 2011! I use VSCode in BOTH windows and linux. After so many years of trying to get away from using Microsoft products, it is now my main editor. But, I am finding it really flaky with these latest updates installed.