- Which distribution should I try? Ubuntu? Red Hat Fedora? Gentoo? (I'm leaning toward Ubuntu.)
- Can I get Eclipse? Does Eclipse work the same?
- There is a version of NetBeans. Should I use it?
- Can I replace my favorite tools, find better ones or find a Linux version of the same ones?
- Can XP and Linux coexist?
- How much free space do I need
- Where is my Partition Magic disk?
- I hope I don't destroy my Windows partition.
The short of it is that I did get Ubuntu up and running, familiarized myself with the OS and figured out how to install the JDK and Squirrel DB Client in about 6 hours.
It wasn't particularly easy to figure everything out, but after all the legwork and documenting my steps, it's relatively easy to do. ...So that's not a deterrent. Hopefully it will be easier when it comes to setting up Eclipse (or NetBeans) and my other tools.
Part of the frustration is that (surprisingly) there isn't much good documentation out there specifically about setting up Ubuntu for Java Development. Also, a good portion of the 'Ubuntu+Java' search results apply to setting up the JRE rather than the JDK.
The first thing to get over is the way applications are packaged into repositories (think Maven) and how they are installed on Ubuntu. You don't have to use the repositories and the "Software Sources" tool but much of the documentation refers to it. Developers who are new to Ubuntu should review these concepts first to avert much frustration.
