Re:Time to change your OS to OSX or BSD
on
Time To Dump XP?
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· Score: 1
Windows is entrenched because of the massively unthinkable amounts of in-house, custom software that can't/won't be rewritten for another os.
This is one of the great advantages of a) web apps and b) software that targets a vm environment (Java, Python, Perl, etc.) The os suddenly becomes a matter of choice, rather than an obligation, and it certainly gives organisations a competitive and cost advantage.
This is a good question. I was a Gentoo user for years, contributed code, etc., but things got chaotic and stuff broke too much for it to be useful anymore. You hardly ever hear about it now. What happened to all the Gentoo users?
Well, I can tell you right now that a lot of Cisco's engineers use Macs, and server-side it's Linux. That said, I imagine Cisco management, marketing, etc. are mostly Windows-based.
Don't ask, don't tell? Enterprises that buy this stuff (assuming it really is rebranded Cisco equipment) can simply claim they were fooled by the vendor.
If you've ever worked with the Chinese, then you'll know they have zero respect for software licences, including the GPL. On one memorable occasion, we had to fight and threaten legal action to get some firmware released by Chinese contractors, and when they did, it was all cut and paste from well-known GPL'd projects.
Once again anecdotally, in my experience lots of enterprise network admins believe Huawei gear is Cisco-derived.
It's been known for years that there is a major disconnect between MS Research and the rest of the company. Even way back when I actually worked with their stuff, I can remember making trips to Redmond and being shocked at the silo-like nature of every business unit. Not only were they competing against the world at large, but also against each other, with chronic NIH-syndrome.
Plus, I got the feeling that sales and marketing are 100% focused on seat sales, and I doubt that's changed much. They wouldn't know what to do with a lot of the weird and wonderful stuff MR comes up with.
Yeah, generally kind of a legend, and one of the real forward-looking thinkers of our time. Kind of the pragmatic dreamer type who tends to think on a humanity-sized scale, but who has the technical chops to back it up.
I also think he has a real appreciation for elegance in design and execution. There's probably a Paul Graham essay in there somewhere.
To be honest, I have used lots of other languages to do multithreaded programming for many years - C++, C, and Python most recently. They all use critical sections etc. (ie mutual exclusion, as you mentioned) to hide stuff.
It's why I generally dislike threaded progamming - the "share everything" model is fundamentally wrong, in my opinion, which I mentioned in my original post. It sounds like you agree with this position.
I realise that other languages, like Erlang, use variants of the Actor pattern to exchange state - classic multiprocessing (I am a fan of Python's multiprocessing module). And I also realise that Erlang isn't using processes, but instead threads, so I guess it's an exception to my "all languages do threads badly" position. But it's not "typical" threaded programming.
I suppose I took exception to the fact that you were picking on Java in particular, rather than the entire family of languages (Java, C, C++, etc.) that does multithreading badly.
I don't care if it's arbitrary to you or not. Apple sees them as such, so that's how it is. If you don't like it, that's excellent, there are many other products for you to choose from.
And your paranoia is absurd - "a grim digital dark age for humanity" thanks to Apple's sdk limitations, hahaha.
Eh, nowhere in my post do I reference individual Macbook models, or Macbooks in general. There is also no "rugged Macbook" (which I would love), etc. I guess I don't understand your argument here.
Regardless of what hardware they offer, when it comes to developing for OS X it's like any other operating system, and that will never change.
You can develop however you like on OS X, which would be the analogous case to developing on Windows.
This article is about what are essentially embedded devices, which Apple (for better or worse) sees as a different set of use cases for consumers and, as a consequence, developers.
Your rant is a bit misguided. Java is no worse at multithreading than anything else. The problem is with threading itself ("share everything"), versus multiprocessing ("share nothing").
Java is so heavily used on the server side that I'm pretty sure all new development could stop tomorrow, and there'd still be near-full employment for Java developers just doing code maintenance for the next 20 years.
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Windows is entrenched because of the massively unthinkable amounts of in-house, custom software that can't/won't be rewritten for another os.
This is one of the great advantages of a) web apps and b) software that targets a vm environment (Java, Python, Perl, etc.) The os suddenly becomes a matter of choice, rather than an obligation, and it certainly gives organisations a competitive and cost advantage.
I'd upgrade Ubuntu to "desktop Linux users in general". All the hallmarks of a cult are there, way more so than Apple for example.
This is a good question. I was a Gentoo user for years, contributed code, etc., but things got chaotic and stuff broke too much for it to be useful anymore. You hardly ever hear about it now. What happened to all the Gentoo users?
A bit of journalistic license. At least the later description was correct, which is better than most Infoworld articles.
I guess you didn't read the article. He does mention that it's a web framework.
Well, I can tell you right now that a lot of Cisco's engineers use Macs, and server-side it's Linux. That said, I imagine Cisco management, marketing, etc. are mostly Windows-based.
Yeah maybe so, I hadn't thought of that. I was just thinking on the technical front.
I don't really accept that sort of relativism, sorry. I guess we have an ideological difference there.
The equipment probably works just fine, actually. Just because it's made with somewhat cheaper parts and cloned firmware doesn't make it "faulty".
Don't ask, don't tell? Enterprises that buy this stuff (assuming it really is rebranded Cisco equipment) can simply claim they were fooled by the vendor.
It's certainly not unheard of: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/188717/chinese_man_gets_30_months_for_fake_cisco_sales.html
If you've ever worked with the Chinese, then you'll know they have zero respect for software licences, including the GPL. On one memorable occasion, we had to fight and threaten legal action to get some firmware released by Chinese contractors, and when they did, it was all cut and paste from well-known GPL'd projects.
Once again anecdotally, in my experience lots of enterprise network admins believe Huawei gear is Cisco-derived.
Unix programmers use them. For example, I work with a very large US company that makes high-end switches, and OS X is the os of choice.
Compared to me, and to the people I work with, I can assure you that it is you that lacks a shred of technological understanding, no offence meant.
Incidentally, no one uses Linux on the desktop. It is a total failure. Sorry.
You get emotional about software you didn't even write? Honestly, take a good hard look at your life.
Not to mention X and Freetype still have horrid antialiasing and general font issues. I realise there are patent problems involved, but ugly is ugly.
It's been known for years that there is a major disconnect between MS Research and the rest of the company. Even way back when I actually worked with their stuff, I can remember making trips to Redmond and being shocked at the silo-like nature of every business unit. Not only were they competing against the world at large, but also against each other, with chronic NIH-syndrome.
Plus, I got the feeling that sales and marketing are 100% focused on seat sales, and I doubt that's changed much. They wouldn't know what to do with a lot of the weird and wonderful stuff MR comes up with.
Yeah, generally kind of a legend, and one of the real forward-looking thinkers of our time. Kind of the pragmatic dreamer type who tends to think on a humanity-sized scale, but who has the technical chops to back it up.
I also think he has a real appreciation for elegance in design and execution. There's probably a Paul Graham essay in there somewhere.
Northern Vancouver Island is in the southwest. It's not in the northwest of anything.
Why, what's the problem with Dawkins? I enjoy his books, but I've never met the guy.
So you're deploying to servers and yet you're crying a river about the lack of Gnome? What am I missing here?
Opera's memory footprint is comparable to that of Firefox. "Feels light" is purely subjective and has nothing to do with actual resource usage.
To be honest, I have used lots of other languages to do multithreaded programming for many years - C++, C, and Python most recently. They all use critical sections etc. (ie mutual exclusion, as you mentioned) to hide stuff.
It's why I generally dislike threaded progamming - the "share everything" model is fundamentally wrong, in my opinion, which I mentioned in my original post. It sounds like you agree with this position.
I realise that other languages, like Erlang, use variants of the Actor pattern to exchange state - classic multiprocessing (I am a fan of Python's multiprocessing module). And I also realise that Erlang isn't using processes, but instead threads, so I guess it's an exception to my "all languages do threads badly" position. But it's not "typical" threaded programming.
I suppose I took exception to the fact that you were picking on Java in particular, rather than the entire family of languages (Java, C, C++, etc.) that does multithreading badly.
I don't care if it's arbitrary to you or not. Apple sees them as such, so that's how it is. If you don't like it, that's excellent, there are many other products for you to choose from.
And your paranoia is absurd - "a grim digital dark age for humanity" thanks to Apple's sdk limitations, hahaha.
Eh, nowhere in my post do I reference individual Macbook models, or Macbooks in general. There is also no "rugged Macbook" (which I would love), etc. I guess I don't understand your argument here.
Regardless of what hardware they offer, when it comes to developing for OS X it's like any other operating system, and that will never change.
You can develop however you like on OS X, which would be the analogous case to developing on Windows.
This article is about what are essentially embedded devices, which Apple (for better or worse) sees as a different set of use cases for consumers and, as a consequence, developers.
Your rant is a bit misguided. Java is no worse at multithreading than anything else. The problem is with threading itself ("share everything"), versus multiprocessing ("share nothing").
Java is so heavily used on the server side that I'm pretty sure all new development could stop tomorrow, and there'd still be near-full employment for Java developers just doing code maintenance for the next 20 years.
It's spelled "millennium", by the way.