It may not be the case for everyone, but my first programming language was C, and I learned it on Windows. I got along just fine, but found most things much easier when I switched to Gentoo Linux. In retrospect, switching from Windows to Gentoo when I was 15 might have been silly, but I liked the system better and enjoyed understanding how everything works. That's just me. Sorry for the lack of details, but it's just a general thing.