Ubuntu® Linux® Bible

Chapter 18. Software Development on Ubuntu

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Installing and using GCC

• Using make to simplify recompilation

• Installing and using the Eclipse IDE

• Installing, configuring, and using Subversion

As pointed out on the Web site and throughout this book, Ubuntu is a distribution for everybody. And that includes developers! Just because Ubuntu is easy to use doesn't mean that serious, hard-core developers can't get real work done on an Ubuntu system—quite the contrary, actually. A good, recursive proof of this is the Ubuntu distribution, which is built by Ubuntu developers on Ubuntu systems. In addition, the fact that Ubuntu offers such a great user experience means that the time that you might ordinarily spend tweaking and fine-tuning your Linux desktop and installed software can be devoted to more productive pursuits, such as working on your personal code projects. The whole world may be waiting for your software!

Linux in general has a bad rep among many of the users of other platforms such as Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, who often see Linux users as cave dwellers using VT100 terminals and living at the command line. Although there's a lot to be said for the command line, modern Linux systems such as Ubuntu strike just the right balance between providing graphical utilities for just about everything, with command-line access when and if you need it. The modern Linux model is strikingly similar to the user model provided by Mac OS X, and new versions of Microsoft Windows include ...