Which linux is best for programming?

I may have been misinformed, but as i understand it when programming for linux you can poke and prod and change the OS in certain ways, ways far beyond what can be done in windows. So, I realize that perhaps some flavors of linux may have had this changed or something (ie redhat) so that the os keeps it's feel which is unique to sed company. So which version of linux (major of obscure) do you think is best to program for...If it's an obscure version I would like it to be fairly simple to use (has a gui) and it functions with newer hardware etc.

Explain "program for"?

Do you mean which distro should your Linux apps target:? In this case yuou are not thinking the right way. Linux apps are Linux apps, and work on any distro. GUI apps can be programmed using any of several toolsets/widget sets, if this is what you are asking I would recommend focusing first on the GTK+ set.

Or do you mean which distro is best to program WITH? In which case, the programming tools are provided by each distro, and in basically the same form, so it doesn't really matter.

Please clarify your question a tad and I might be able to help you more.

I think its just a matter of your opinion per distro. I perfer Mandrake to redhat, and it seems, from the vibe i seem to get from alot of ppl, that anyone who is hard-core linux hates redhat.

Jus my two cents.

basically i was wondering if the kernel varied from distro to distro as far as what kind of power my program could have over the OS. Which is kind of the appeal of linux to me. Thanks.

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Originally posted by Ride -or- Die
I think its just a matter of your opinion per distro. I perfer Mandrake to redhat, and it seems, from the vibe i seem to get from alot of ppl, that anyone who is hard-core linux hates redhat.

Jus my two cents.

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There are a lot of people who despise Red Hat and it's mainly because they're the top Linux distributor. I know that a lot of the developers of Gnome and Ximian use Red Hat and Debian as their developing platforms. I haven't heard many of them talk about other distros although that doesn't mean they don't use them. Red Hat is developed for mainly because it's the most commercial distro right now. I use Red Hat and it works for me like other distros work for other people. Your best bet is to get a hold of many of the distros and try each one and you'll eventually find one you like more than the others.

As for hacking the kernel. Some distros come with a kernel that is tweaked by the distro but that doesn't mean you can't download the 'real' kernel from kernel.org and hack on the kernel that Linus distributes.

And of course if you are a purist you don't really need a distro. It is entirely possible to download, compile, and install every program, and write every configuration file yourself. A distro just automates this.

Of the major distros, they are geared for slightly different applications, but all do basically the same thing. Mandrake is more a desktop, where as Red Hat and SuSE are more servers. What you use is up to you, and Linux "Distro wars" are known in more Linux-oriented discussion groups as the greatest flame-war threads you can get.