Did you test the linux install on a live usb drive first? These days, many linux distributions even install on laptops with little issue.
And I also agree with tiar that python plugins are the fastest way to start development as pretty much python is probably one of the easiest programming languages there is. And you can play around it without compile times.
Once you do the tutorial, I suggest this which will developing python plugins much easier:
And after you get experience working on krita in python, you can later on contribute with C++ with time.