acoliver

I prefer Linux for my development platform. After using Mac OS X for awhile (lots of projectors, reconfiguring X inconvenient), when I switched back to primarily coding I needed my Linux back. I've always found Red Hat's packaging system to be pretty frustrating (although it has gotten better). I couldn't manage to get Fedora Core 5 installed on my MacBookPro (Core Duo) so I tried Ubuntu. There was a minor hiccup with the boot loader (which is more cause Apple is weird) but the community information made working around it a snap! Ubuntu leans a bit more towards the pragmatic side of the wider Linux community so chances are that your computer will be fully operational just by booting from the CD, you'll obviously want to install. Installing Ubuntu, Mozilla Firefox, OpenOffice and Mozilla Thunderbird produces a fully functional desktop. Obviously I'm bigger in to the development tools but this is the first Linux I'd dare suggest to an end user.

HSQL belongs in your development toolbox if you do Java. Its simple and easy to use and setup. It basically serves Java developers the way MS Access serves .NET/MS developers. It isn't really that great to deploy in production.