Since you already know windows, do you use Microsoft VS.NET? All our code compiles and runs on both platforms. The only modules that don't are the DCE wrappers for Linux projects, like Xine and Myth. Personally I think vs.net is easier for debugging (setting breakpoints, inspecting, etc.). So for development you can just checkout the svn branch, and you'll see there's a pluto.sln file for VS.net, and that will open all the .vcproj files. The first compilation will take a long time (about 1 hour to compile all the libraries and stuff), but then it's fast.
Normally I run DCERouter (ie the main core) on my windows machine in vs.net. Then I'll have a regular Pluto media director, and just change the /etc/pluto.conf to point to my windows pc rather than the real Pluto Core. It still works just fine, even all the Linux-only modules, like Xine and Myth, run fine against a Windows DCERouter. The Orbiters, the Bluetooth library to communicate with the mobile phone, sqlCVS, all that runs fine on Windows and seamlessly interops with the Linux pieces.
The question is what kind of developing you want to do? If it's Linux-specific stuff, then I know most of our programmers use KDE as the development environment. KDE has a great editor, however, personally I think debugging is easier in VS.net. Let me know what you want to do and we can have a phone chat too if you like with a bit of orientation.
Aaron
