I'm a newbie to MIDI 2.0 and looking for the best way to get started.

Background:
Systems architect at Intel, many years of IT experience and programming. Much better architect than progammer.
Used MIDI over 30 years ago for some home studio stuff. Nothing left of that. Not sure those brain cells are even active.

I want to develop an interface system that takes data streams from Smart devices (Internet of Things devices, for example) and converts it into MIDI to drive a synth. Why? Hell if I know. Why not?

I am JUST starting out on this project and have nothing. So I have the advantage of starting from a clean slate. I'm looking for a minimal setup, not a toy but not high end. It's a bewildering array of goodies now.

So a few questions, is there a preferred OS (Apple, Linux WIndows) and programming language? I don't need any fancy audio, but some sort of MIDI 2.0 synth in a box. I would like to hook up with some technicla/progamming groups as well. The rough plan is to get the basics working on the cheap and then worry about getting better toys.

I don't realy want to take a deep dive into the MIDI 2.0 spec if I don't have to. I just want to learn enough to link these things together. There are some Internet of Things standards coming together and it might be cool to have an open source translation layer (or does one already exist?).

Anyway, that my story.

Thanks