Although it wasn’t my first distribution in the Linux world, it was the one that had the most impact on my career. During the CS prep course, my professors repeated that there were only two ideal distributions for the major and for programming, in general terms. Inside, I was skeptical: “the profs have no idea.” They suggested Fedora or Debian. In my head, something didn’t add up: all distributions are Unix-like, and that’s what makes them so versatile and powerful.

Another professor, younger and with fewer years of teaching, but no less wise for it, recommended we try several distros until we found one we liked. The others said not to listen to him, that it made no sense. I listened to the young one. I bought a decent laptop and started trying everything I could: from Linux Mint, which was the first one I installed, to Arch and Deepin OS. It was a long road on which I learned a lot, but in the end, I always ended up coming back to Fedora.

This post is to rank the best distributions for a computer science student and related fields. Finding the best one isn’t easy: you must value stability, if it’s a rolling release, your future goals, whether you prefer to learn at a low level or need immediate productivity, and your hardware.

First, think about your objectives. If you want to learn systems and administration in-depth, a more “manual” distro forces you to understand the system. If you want to focus on programming and moving forward with projects, prioritize stability, good compatibility, and that “everything just works.”

Key criteria to evaluate include hardware compatibility (especially NVIDIA graphics, Wi-Fi, and sleep on laptops), stability and update cadence (LTS or stable if you don’t want surprises during the semester; rolling if you want the latest), software availability and package managers (apt on Ubuntu/Debian, dnf on Fedora, pacman on Arch; extras like Flatpak and AppImage help a lot), documentation and community (the bigger, the easier it is to solve problems), desktop environment and resource consumption (GNOME and KDE are very polished; Xfce/LXQt are lighter), and support for the development tools you’ll use (Docker/Podman, virtualization with KVM/VirtualBox, C/C++/Rust/Python toolchains, CUDA/ROCm for GPU, LaTeX, IDEs like VS Code/JetBrains). Also consider disk encryption, backups, battery, HiDPI, Wayland vs X11, and printers.

If you’re like me and have no idea at the beginning, the best thing is a distro that “just works” for studying and programming: Linux Mint is your old reliable. Now, if you want to use a system truly designed for development, use Fedora. I could talk about many more, but I prefer to get straight to it.

Without further ado, here is the ranking.

Ranking of Distros for Studying Computer Science

1. Fedora Workstation Explicitly designed for development: it brings very recent toolchains (GCC/Clang, Python, Rust), SELinux by default, and a modern workflow with Podman/Toolbox for “rootless” containers. GNOME comes very polished, Flatpak is well-integrated, and the COPR repositories make it easy to install extra software. Its manager is dnf and it uses rpm packages, with clear packaging and update policies. Why here? Because it offers “the latest” with good stability, ideal for courses and projects that require recent versions of compilers, kernels, or frameworks. Cons: Its main sponsorship is from Red Hat (owned by IBM). Although Fedora is a solid community and not a commercial product, depending on a large company always introduces the risk of a change in direction. The case of Clear Linux (driven by Intel) showed how corporate priorities can change and reduce focus on the desktop; it’s not a prediction for Fedora, but it is a reminder that business decisions can impact sponsored projects. As of today, Fedora’s community model and its adoption mitigate that risk quite a bit.
2. Linux Mint Focused on “install and get to work” with a minimal learning curve. Based on Ubuntu LTS, it inherits its huge ecosystem and uses apt and deb packages, with Cinnamon as the default environment: light, consistent, and familiar if you come from Windows. Excellent for classes, scripting, Git, and compiling C/C++/Java/Python without fighting the system, with codecs and usability details sorted out. Why in this spot? Maximum productivity and stability for the average student, without losing compatibility with educational tools. Cons: Being based on LTS, some toolchain and kernel versions lag behind; if you need the latest (new CUDA/ROCm, kernel for very recent hardware), you’ll have to pull from PPAs/Flatpak or wait for backports.
3. Pop!_OS Made by System76 with a practical focus on laptops and development. On an Ubuntu base, it adds a very polished installer, power profiles, automatic tiling, images with NVIDIA drivers, and recovery utilities that save you when something fails. Why here? Because it balances ease of use with sensible decisions for productivity, especially on laptops with dedicated GPUs. Cons: Its cadence depends on Ubuntu and the extra work from System76; if you’re looking for the newest base stack, Fedora is usually ahead. Also, its evolving COSMIC environment can bring changes that not everyone wants in the middle of a semester.
4. NixOS Extremely powerful for reproducibility: you declare your system and development environments in files (nix/flakes) and can clone your exact setup on any machine or revert changes in seconds. For courses with complex dependencies, reproducible research, or multiple projects with different toolchains, it’s a dream. Why fourth? The learning curve is real: learning the Nix language and its model takes time right when you need to be making progress in your subjects. If you’re excited about “infra as code” and can invest in learning it, it might move to your top spot; if not, start with something more conventional and come back to NixOS later.

I didn’t put Debian because, right off the bat, you’re more likely to run into compatibility issues on modern hardware. This can be positive if your goal is to learn by fixing your system, but it’s not the experience I recommend if you already have enough problems with your classes. The important thing in your major is to focus on learning; if you want to experiment later, try it. Something similar happens with other distros. For example, Deepin OS would be perfect if it didn’t feel “green”: it’s missing details, some animations lag, and the experience suffers.

And that’s it, these are my recommendations. To choose for the first time, this is enough. With time you’ll realize that almost all Linux distributions are more of the same: you make the difference, not the distro.