Imagine getting a good ‘free’ operating system for developmental purposes!
Well, being a developer and having an old school laptop I have tried and used many operating systems for my machine.
But nothing really went well for my laptop so I had to upgrade my laptop.
While going through the vigorous process. And for my own developmental works, I have tried some really good operating systems.
If compared different operating systems based on their RAM consumption, processor consumption, the inbuilt tools, and on the dependency of heavy drivers
Here, I am talking of operating systems that are absolutely free you don’t have to download any kind of crack version from torrent or so they are absolutely free of cost and you will get the original form of operating systems for your PC or laptop.
If asked, personally I would recommend all these operating systems as the resource consumption of the operating system are as least as possible which gives space for development even in low specs machine.
A Pentium with 2GB RAM laptop is what I was before this. In which I used to develop some ionic codes, PHP, and even write codes for my IoT projects and it was such a pain for me. You know nothing is enough for a developer. So, I ultimately decided to upgrade my laptop nevertheless that is something different.
I will talk about it some other day but today we are going to discuss what are the best free operating systems for programming.
Now being a developer we have to write codes and code compilation takes off too much resources of a laptop. So we need we really need to keep the Laptop light so we need a lightweight operating system for that OR we really need a high build machine for that so that the codes can be compiled easily.
So here is my list:
5.Ubuntu
The fifth one is Ubuntu, the classic LINUX operating system, and the most popular Linux operating system. As well as mostly used by first-time users. It has gnome Desktop environment support and it gives really a premium looks to it.
Ubuntu is really not light Operating system because of the Desktop environment which is the gnome.
Gnome focuses more on the graphical interfaces which actually is away too much of the machine resources to handle.
But as UBUNTU comes with Debian file package manager which is apt. It is really easy and good to use for first time users for first-time users and new developers.
Moreover, Ubuntu has the widest community of all the Linux distro available.
So you will get online community support for this operating system on the internet on the internet.
I included this operating system on the list because it is really user friendly and good for beginners as it has a big community. And moreover being Linux you don’t have to take up the pain of manually installing drivers for your hardware, Linux takes up the responsibility for that!
4. Windows 10
The fourth operating system is window 10, and Windows 10 is the most popular operating system used and accepted by the world in this list.
Window 10 is on this list because of its user-friendliness and because of being lightweight than other windows. Moreover, Windows 10 is the only window that was available for free.
Window 10 is a mode of graphical oriented operating system and you don’t have to hard-code everything that you are trying to do without permission in the operating system which is not as same as with the Linux distros.
Managing files and packages with the graphical interface becomes really easy in windows but coming to the main thing that we are got, that is programming.
I would say programming in windows is ok but not that good, window update functionality really eats up a lot of resources from the laptop which actually hampers the performance of the laptop and so I won’t really recommend going for the Window10.
But if your hardcore window lover you can go for windows 10 for programming.
Windows 10 has got a lot of IDE supports. Most IDE ( integrated development environment) supports windows and you can run and compile any kind of code in Windows 10 that won’t be a problem.
But let me warn you, coding in Windows10 will give you pain in your stomach because for sure definitely that its gonna freeze.
Note:just for wide acceptance of the Windows family I had to include one of the windows operating system in my list, but I really don’t recommend using Windows!
So, the above two operating systems were really focused on the Graphical interface and I just put them on my list because they come for free you have to pay anything to have these operating systems.
Now let’s jump into the actual performing operating systems that are available for programming and the operating systems are absolutely free.
3. Manjaro Linux
The third operating system that I am going to talk about is Manjaro Linux.
Again coming back to Linux distro. You cannot keep yourself out of Linux if you want to stay in the programming world.
Linux is one of the most popular and open-source operating systems, unlike Mac and Windows.
Manjaro Linux comes with defaults XFCE desktop environment which is light and still has got a good graphical interface. I really like Manjaro Linux.
But you would be surprised to know the system requirements for Manjaro LTS the latest one
- 1GB RAM
- 1 gigahertz processor
- Around 20 to 30 GB of hard disk
That’s it.
This operating system can even run in machines having low configurations than even my Pentium laptop.
So you can just have an estimation that what how Manjaro Linux can affect your machine and how it will boost up the speed of development of your codes.
Now I recommend you Manjaro if you are looking out for a balance in a graphical interface and a good light operating system for your machine.
Or else you have sacrifice one and go with the other
like if you want to go for the graphical interface you can select Windows10 or Ubuntu
Get manjaro from the official site
Or if you want to go for the raw performance then the next operating system is just for you
2. Arch Linux
The second one of the list is again a Linux operating system now please don’t kill me for including most of the Linux operating system. But what can I do? Ask anyone they would suggest, Linux for development/programming/coding. As Linux is available for free cost and also stands for delivering best-operating systems for free.
Now talking about Arch Linux, Arch Linux is one of the favorite operating systems for Linux lovers. you call for hardcore Linux user, they would always recommend you Arch Linux as it is the lightest Linux available.
Arch Linux comes in the form of the RAW operating system. Just like the way the old DOS used to look. All you get is a shell console where you have to shell script and do everything.
Don’t worry you can always go for a desktop environment. yeah, that is also possible with Arch Linux. That is how flexible Linux is!
Even after knowing this how could you stay off Linux it’s really not possible!
Linux is really flexible, so obviously can install a desktop environment for themself in Arch Linux.
There are different desktop environments available for Linux every Linux distro has got their own set of desktop of environments available.
Available desktop envirorment are:
- Gnome
- KDE plasma
- Lxde
- Xfce
Gnome and KDE plasma are heavy desktop environments as they focus more on graphical interface really don’t provide good performance when comes to heavy Compilation.
But LXDE and XFCE are the lightweight desktop environments they are built in a way to focus more on the performance and not on the graphical interface so you are not gonna get a good graphical interface over the LXDE and XFCE
.
But your performance won’t hamper.
Arch Linux is the most flexible one, which means you can customize it according to your need you can install anything that you want according to your need. You can install any packages, anything that you want. As it is the most flexible one that’s why it is Love by the Linux community.
Acrh Linux doesn’t supports Debian package manager, it supports pacman!
1. Kali Linux
The top one is Kali Linux, and now we are talking about what you came here for. And if you guessed it at the beginning, you guessed it right!
But I would tell you the reason why included it and why it tops the list.
Kali Linux tops the list, not just because of its performance. Kali Linux tops the list because of the inbuilt tools that it brings in. You won’t even be able to guess what all tools it brings in.
The tools provided by Kali Linux are really helpful for any developers and hackers.
Let that be a surprise for you when you install Kali Linux but for now let me tell you the perks you want to get out of Kali Linux.
It comes with various coding tools.
It comes with various code-breaking tools which might help you in testing your codes.
Kali Linux comes with hacking tools as well, through which we can learn ethical hacking and all those.
You can install any desktop environment that you think is lightweight and good for you.
Kali Linux is the performance Queen for programmers along with the soft-tools that Kali linux brings in!
Kali Linux is appreciated and is readily accepted by the hacker community.
So there you go, hack program whatever you develop and test its security!
Download Kali from the official site
Now you have the list, check out these operating systems and you can check this out for free because the owner doesn’t charge you!
Go ahead check all of these operating systems.