Just curiosity really, it was when I first started learning Java from my father’s old textbook. The “Getting your environment setup” had instructions for both Windows, OS X, and Linux/Ubuntu.
Of them all, the instructions for Ubuntu were the simplest (sudo apt-get install openjdk or a similar package), in order to get the Java dev tools installed.
Ended up giving Ubuntu a look in a VM since I hadn’t heard of “Linux/Ubuntu” (which was also the first time I used a VM) during the 8.04 days!
Funnily enough I actually put Java down for a bit since I just couldn’t get into it. IIRC though, my first project on my GitHub had something to do with Python+GTK. Then eventually I got back into Java when I discovered I could make Minecraft plugins/mods.
Of course I was pretty young at the time, maybe 13 or 14? So I didn’t know (or would’ve cared) about the whole privacy aspect of Linux - that came much later. But ever since then, like many others, I’ve always maintained that Linux is the best development environment for me.