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Explaining The Windows/UNIX Cultural Divide
giampy writes "Joel Spolsky writes a review-like article on the last book of Eric S. Raymond (The Art of Unix Programming). His views on the cultural differences among Windows and Unix programmers are well explained. Overall, an interesting read." Also on the topic of Windows, badriram writes "Microsoft is reorganizing the windows team, it seems the are separating the
OS core development. Seems like things heading in the right direction in creating a more secure OS, and making it more business oriented. Read the
article here."
It's rather rare to find such bigotry among Windows programmers, who are, on the whole, olution-oriented and non-ideological.
Au contraire, Mr. Sposky, most Windows people I deal with are ignorant of anything that doesn't come from Redmond, and not willing to learn.
People can be solution-oriented and non-ideological without being willing to learn an entirely new set of platforms and skills. Often being solution oriented implies you will be building off of existing knowledge and not starting from scratch in an entirely alien platform. I believe the difference that Sposky is trying to hit upon is that Windows programmers don't hate or belittle Unix programmers whilst the Unix culture tends to be ripe with bigotry. That said, die emacs die. Vi forever. Ah, screw em both, I want an IDE.
you're missing the point here i think. the relative complexity of programming on each platform is irrelevant to everyone in the entire world, except programmers. people *want* simplicity, and for good reason
UNIX is complex in the sense a musical instrument is complex: there is a lot you can do with it.
Windows is complex in the sense that a Rube Goldberg machine is complex: it has lots of strings, wheels, water buckets, and cats.
the whole reason why ready-to-serve meals sell well is because of convenience, and that's the same reason windows sells. not because it's better or faster or nicer or whatever, it's simply more convenient, and that's what people want. give the customer what they want - ever heard of that?
Of course. And did I ever say Windows should go away? Just like fast food, I think it's unavoidable that something like Windows exists, and it's good because it makes the masses happy.
What I disagree with is Spolky's assertion that UNIX and Windows are somehow pretty similar and that they just have some superficial cultural differences.
and your analogy is misleading: people don't learn to play the violin because playing the violin is complex, they play it because it sounds nice.
My point exactly: people accept that the violin is hard to learn because, for a skilled musician, the violin is a good instrument, while a CD player isn't.
if that pisses off the chefs and the shop-keepers, well tough
The only people who seemed "pissed off" are some Windows developers who apparently can't accept that the really good stuff happens on other platforms and is done by other people. Come on, guys, be happy that you have a job and are making money. Your software equivalent of fast food joints are raking in big bucks. But don't try to pass off Chicken McNuggets as a gourmet meal.
The UNIX crowd (=chefs), on the other hand, really doesn't care what Windows people think of UNIX because the UNIX crowd already knows what's better and who is more skilled. They don't care, that is, as long as the Windows crowd doesn't insult them by saying that, deep down, Windows and UNIX are really just the same.
- The Amazina Llama