Which testnet? Which Linux client?

Question

I have been watching Ethereum for a couple years, have had that Mist thing installed, I lost $40 in The DAO. The time has come around again for me to pay attention and I want to do a testnet.

I have OSX on my desktop, a Linux system sitting in the corner. I can load random stuff from Git and I do a little programming in Python.

I want to get some sort of testnet going on the Linux box, and a client/wallet on OSX, then maybe on Android if it's not too much of a nuisance.

I want to be able to run this testnet stuff as a service, worst case shell in and run it under tmux. I really want a command line client, preferably Python. This installed without complaint:

https://github.com/ethereum/pyethereum

And this is where I get confused. I see there are three testnets, I see tutorials on configuring them for other clients, but I don't find a current pyethereum HowTo anywhere.

https://testnet.etherscan.io/

Is pyethereum the right way to go about this? Or do I really have to suck it up and get familiar with the Go client? I tried that thing a while ago and I forget exactly how it made me mad, but it did.

Answer 1

If you use the geth client then you should use ropsten testnet, if you use parity then you should use kovan testnet (but you can switch to ropsten with a flag).

I'd recommend to start with a framework like populus, which makes easier to deploy and test contracts.