Why do .NET shops insist on throwing money away?
on
Java vs .NET
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· Score: 2, Insightful
I am baffled by these conflicts.
With Java I have a huge open source community as well as commerical vendors. I have upteen choices for object persistance, IDEs, distributed infrastructure, graphics toolkits, widget toolkits, web tools,... there seem to be 10 choices for nearly everything.
If I run into a problem with a java API - 98 times out of a 100 it's already fixed or a work around identitfied. If there's fundamental design error in the tool - I've got 10 other choices.
I can develop and deploy nearly transparently to Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Sun, etc... I regularly develop on Mac OS X and deploy to Linux and Sun with no hassles - none. (Before the PowerBook it was develop on NT4/cygwin and deploy to Linux and Sun and I had to worry about backslashes vs forward slashes, semicolons vs colons, and.bat vs..sh - not too painful but even that's gone now that I'm on OS X)
Why would you sacrafice all of these choices and options? (Read about "Real Options" to see how these choices have concrete dollar values - sacraficing options is just throwing money away.)
I hear arguments like "we've already got COM developers" - Is it really that hard for them to learn Java? How much would two weeks of downtime cost for a shop of 20 developers? Figure 75k/developer (with overhead), that's $1500 a week - times 20 - 30k/week - times 2 - $60k (4% of the annual salary budget). Add to it about 3 months of 75% productivity (25% in month 1, 50% month 2, 75% month 3, 100% month 4) - that's another $94k. So hand wave a little and say that switching to Java will cost $150-$200k for a development shop with $1.5-2 million/annum budget. (Maybe add another $100k for training and what ever.)
That's the same cost as being 4-7 weeks late on a project deadline. When's the last time you did that?
A "real options" analysis would likely show the choices available in the Java world are worth maybe ten times that. Figure a company with $2MM dev budget has a $20MM-$70MM annual revenue, there's a good chance the flexibility from choices can make a 3-10% difference in revenue - an even better chance of 1-3% increase per year over 3 years. (I know that's not discounted but it's a back of the envelope thing not a 10Q filing.)
How much would you save on VB Studio licenses?.NET deployment? How much downtime saved from moving off wormy Windows servers and onto Linux? (100 user Linux license * 10 CPUs + 100 user postgres license = total of ZERO dollars.) (Don't give us that "only if you don't value your time" malarchy either - Windows eats far more of my time in 3 months than Linux does in 2 years.)
How much might you save by leveraging amazing tools like those used in Garsomke's continuous integration environment (see http://www.sys-con.com/java/article.cfm?id=1945)? Apache's projects alone are worth a great deal of money to a development shop - add in Source Forge and the value is down right spooky.
What else I wonder? (Let's not forget the simple freedom from Microsoft lock-in.)
What's the counter argument - that there are some incremental IDE features in VS Studio?
Some good documents on gun control: Lott/Mustard study - compares crime statistics for "shall-issue" (if your qualified - you must receive a permit) concealed carry states and "may-issue" (if the Sheriff thinks you need it). (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JLS/lott.pdf) S ome back and forth arguments (mostly factual) about it's validity can be found here: http://daviddfriedman.com/Lott_v_Teret/Lott_Mustar d_Controversy.html
There's interesting numbers in the FBI Unified Crime report.
Also David Kopel has an article in the St. Louis University Public Law Reveiw Journal (1993 Volume 12) - titled "Peril or Protection? The risks and benefits of handgun prohibition." Good article and has typical scholarly bibliography of other useful sources.
Cato institute article on concealed carry success in Florida: http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-284.html
Google link of related sites: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859 -1&q=related%3Awww.cato.org%2Fpubs%2Fpas%2Fpa-284. html
There's a lot made of "Defensive Use of Firearms" numbers. Google link: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859 -1&q=%22Defensive+Use+of+Firearms%22
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I am baffled by these conflicts.
... there seem to be 10 choices for nearly everything.
.bat vs. .sh - not too painful but even that's gone now that I'm on OS X)
.NET deployment? How much downtime saved from moving off wormy Windows servers and onto Linux? (100 user Linux license * 10 CPUs + 100 user postgres license = total of ZERO dollars.) (Don't give us that "only if you don't value your time" malarchy either - Windows eats far more of my time in 3 months than Linux does in 2 years.)
With Java I have a huge open source community as well as commerical vendors. I have upteen choices for object persistance, IDEs, distributed infrastructure, graphics toolkits, widget toolkits, web tools,
If I run into a problem with a java API - 98 times out of a 100 it's already fixed or a work around identitfied. If there's fundamental design error in the tool - I've got 10 other choices.
I can develop and deploy nearly transparently to Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Sun, etc... I regularly develop on Mac OS X and deploy to Linux and Sun with no hassles - none. (Before the PowerBook it was develop on NT4/cygwin and deploy to Linux and Sun and I had to worry about backslashes vs forward slashes, semicolons vs colons, and
Why would you sacrafice all of these choices and options? (Read about "Real Options" to see how these choices have concrete dollar values - sacraficing options is just throwing money away.)
I hear arguments like "we've already got COM developers" - Is it really that hard for them to learn Java? How much would two weeks of downtime cost for a shop of 20 developers? Figure 75k/developer (with overhead), that's $1500 a week - times 20 - 30k/week - times 2 - $60k (4% of the annual salary budget). Add to it about 3 months of 75% productivity (25% in month 1, 50% month 2, 75% month 3, 100% month 4) - that's another $94k. So hand wave a little and say that switching to Java will cost $150-$200k for a development shop with $1.5-2 million/annum budget. (Maybe add another $100k for training and what ever.)
That's the same cost as being 4-7 weeks late on a project deadline. When's the last time you did that?
A "real options" analysis would likely show the choices available in the Java world are worth maybe ten times that. Figure a company with $2MM dev budget has a $20MM-$70MM annual revenue, there's a good chance the flexibility from choices can make a 3-10% difference in revenue - an even better chance of 1-3% increase per year over 3 years. (I know that's not discounted but it's a back of the envelope thing not a 10Q filing.)
How much would you save on VB Studio licenses?
How much might you save by leveraging amazing tools like those used in Garsomke's continuous integration environment (see http://www.sys-con.com/java/article.cfm?id=1945)? Apache's projects alone are worth a great deal of money to a development shop - add in Source Forge and the value is down right spooky.
What else I wonder? (Let's not forget the simple freedom from Microsoft lock-in.)
What's the counter argument - that there are some incremental IDE features in VS Studio?
It seems simple - black and white (and green).
Some good documents on gun control:
S ome back and forth arguments (mostly factual) about it's validity can be found here: http://daviddfriedman.com/Lott_v_Teret/Lott_Mustar d_Controversy.html
9 -1&q=related%3Awww.cato.org%2Fpubs%2Fpas%2Fpa-284. html
9 -1&q=%22Defensive+Use+of+Firearms%22
Lott/Mustard study - compares crime statistics for "shall-issue" (if your qualified - you must receive a permit) concealed carry states and "may-issue" (if the Sheriff thinks you need it). (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JLS/lott.pdf)
There's interesting numbers in the FBI Unified Crime report.
Also David Kopel has an article in the St. Louis University Public Law Reveiw Journal (1993 Volume 12) - titled "Peril or Protection? The risks and benefits of handgun prohibition." Good article and has typical scholarly bibliography of other useful sources.
Cato institute article on concealed carry success in Florida: http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-284.html
Google link of related sites: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-885
There's a lot made of "Defensive Use of Firearms" numbers. Google link: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-885
And finally: check out http://gunhoo.com