Slashdot Mirror
Was .NET All a Mistake?
mikejuk writes "The recent unsettling behavior at Microsoft concerning .NET makes it a good time to re-evaluate what the technology is all about. It may have been good technology, but with the systems guys building Windows preferring to stick with C++, the outcome was inevitable. Because they failed to support its way of doing things, .NET has always been a second-class Windows citizen unable to make direct use of the Windows APIs — especially the latest. .NET started out as Microsoft's best challenge to Java but now you have to ask: what has the excursion into managed code brought the Microsoft programmer, and indeed what good has it done Microsoft? From where we are now, it begins to look very much like an unnecessary forced detour, and Windows programmers are going to be living with the mess for years to come."
My step father is a real estate agent and the MLS (multiple listing service) created a web site with .NET that all the agents *must* use. It's IE only, Windows XP or Vista (not 7) only, and frankly sucks. Doesn't work on Macs, don't work on linux. Frankly it barely works in windows. Has very specific internet options that must be set, cookies must be saved, etc. It's easily the worst god damned web site I've ever seen.
It's my only non-game experience with .net. But why should a web page that links to a database be OS specific, browser specific, etc? Is it a nice feature or lazy coding?
As a digital artist who only reads these threads so I feel less ignorant when I have lunch with the programmers, .Net seems like the perfect language for little shits straight out of college who don't know how to do any real programming. I visited the MLS and saw the entire programming team was interns except for 1 guy.
It would seem that one should only be able to sell homes if they use windows xp and IE in the case of this MLS. My parents want a Mac, and I want them to have one because it means I don't have to drive down there every 5 months to reinstall everything. But they can't because of fucking .net. I swear to god it's caused me more headaches than anything else MS has ever done.
Fuck .net. Fuck it in the ass with a big rubber dick, then break it off and beat it with what's left.