It is about time I document this.
My personal context: Kubuntu, OpenGL, C++, development.
First of all: Install Kubuntu. Despite its quirks and binary driver hassles, still my favorite distro. Next, the packages.
My main enviroment, kdevelop pulls in most dependencies like gcc:
sudo apt-get install kdevelop cmake
3d stuff, I don't really need glut but it pulls in most of the OpenGl dependencies.
freeglut3-dev libxrandr-dev libxi-dev
Some boost libs which pull in their own dependencies.
I stick with 1.54 because that's the version Kubuntu uses for its own tools apparently.
sudo apt-get install libboost-filesystem1.54-dev libboost-thread1.54-dev
and finally, convenience!
sudo apt-get install yakuake vim
Still not done though, Kubuntu suggested installing the nvidia binary driver, which I did, as without it you get crappy or no OpenGL. Unfortunately, this kind of stuff still does not work very well, as I was greeted by the following stuff upon the next apt invocation:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
xserver-xorg-video-all : Depends: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).
Bottom line: package system broken. I guess some kind of fake nvidia xorg package should have been marked as installed, but it was not. As it was a fresh install anyway, I gave it a shot and decided to uninstall the complaining xserver-xorg-video-all. Not a lot to lose. This seemingly empty meta package was not doing anything anyway, except for being annoying.