To be honest, once I preferred tabs, anyway tabs are uncommon practice in the open source world, compared on how it looks the poll, that forced me to use 4 spaces instead. It's not a big problem today using a good IDE and EditorConfig setting files.

Well, my first real approach to programming was C and then C++ at University. Anyway i created before some stupid stuff in PASCAL and web pages in pure css+html . Then i started learning php and sass , still used today with satisfaction along with python and javascript .

I quote @murali, Ubuntu should be the best choice, in development and also in production. Debian is also good, but Ubuntu is very similar and has a better balance between newer packages and stability. Anyway, i think the best approach is to stay with your favorite operating system and software. I work on Windows 10 with phpstorm, atom, illustrator ecc.. and Vagrant to manage different virtual environment (mirrored with production for best consistency). With Windows this kind of things get a little complicated, but if you are a Mac guy they're a piece of cake.

I see no real benefits (at least, maybe, someone is going to build "really" the new facebook in term of complexity) in using React. Mixing xml-like, html, js (i meant "jsx"... really?) and so on, for just the "view". I rarely saw so many messes in my life. It's not easy to learn, not easy to read, not easy to maintain. Why, i just ask why? Because is Facebook's stuff? Do you need components? Vue.js is far better, easier, readable, maintainable framework. For simpler things there's the beautiful Riot.js also.

As first i'd ask myself: is a framework like this really necessary? When the answer is yes, well, with no problem with evergreen browsers, and with a shotgun pointed to my head that prevents me for using far better framework like Vue.js , well, i'll choose Polymer that leverages web components. The React approach and syntax are just crazy and i'd stay away from it as much as possible

If you wanna try newest technologies when they're available, maybe Ubuntu is a better idea. I'm a lover user of Debian, but in my opinion it's more indicated for a server, where ubuntu fits a desktop more.

I don't like React. Mix together styling and code it's just a bad idea that remembers me an evil and fortunately bygone era. If someone ask me I just say: use Riot or Vue: more elegant, easier but still powerful solution.

Illustrator. Better than Photoshop for web graphic imo.

PHP 7 is now faster than HHVM: http://www.zend.com/en/resources/php7_infographic

Nano. Too damn fast and easy for small changes and file inspections. Vim is more powerful, but for complex tasks i see no need of a 'terminal' editor, i go with Atom.