I truly hope apple does not ever port over to the x86 chipset. Would be a horrible waste imho. When I, and I am sure others, buy Mac they buy it for the hardware/software combo. I pay a little extra to know everything "just works". x86 components have proven that they don't "just work".
OSX onto x86 would be like putting the body of a Jaguar (no pun intended) on the guts of a Yugo. Sure you could do it, but why bother?
You should consider the difference between "open source" and the Open Source Movement. While I agree they share the same words they have drastically different meanings.
Any code that the source is open and available for modification is "open source" code. Period end of statement. MS code does not fall into this category for the simple reason that you are not allowed to modify it nor is the entire code base available for review. However, Resin is an example of "open source" code. Developers can review the source and even modify it for their own use and *gasp* can submit the code back to resin to be integrated.
Free Sofware aka "the Open Source Movement" is complete different than a company opening its source code and allowing people to use it in a non-GPLed license. What is so bad about that? Resin allows people to use it for FREE for development and even small businesses get to use it for free.
Why must the Open Source Zealots(tm) demand that everything they *consider* to be open source must also be completely free of a pricetag? There is a world of difference between what Resin and other companies like them are doing and what Microsoft, et al. are doing. Stop thinking in extremes.
Developers can view the source and are able to make changes which can then be submitted back. That is open source software. It just happens to be 'non-free' open source. But still open source none the less.
imho, hot deployment is great for development but is painfully dangerous in a production enviroment. The last few projects I worked on we always turned off hot deployment in the production enviroment. Why? Security considered the risk of an app being placed on the server and "auto deployed" was too great.
I do not count myself in the "zealot" community. Do I think Linux is the end all be all? Absolutely not. I am a java developer by trade and my development platform (now) is OSX. Why? Because the gui is outstanding. However when it comes to servers I run Linux.
The GPL is a choice. People are not "locked" into it if they choose to use GPL software. The GPL has absolutely nothing to do with people using the software. It has to do with people expanding or enhancing the software. I can use a GPLed OS and put proprietary code on it if I want. I do this all day long running my company's software on a Linux box. Lets not try to make the GPL sound like some kind of virus. It is a licensing choice.
You are correct that one C# course is not going to kill anyone. However, as history has shown time and again, freedom is not taken away all at once, it is taken away a bit at a time and each little bit seems like "no big deal". One day you look up and you have no choices anymore and cry foul. Some of us remember the days before Microsoft and have seen how far it has eroded already. I agree this is just one small item, but it is yet another step towards losing all freedom in the technology arena.
Linux is still maturing, when the gui is close to Aqua I will probably switch, but for right now, on my development platform, I chose to run my Powerbook and Aqua. The hardware is great and the gui makes sense and does not get in my way. When Linux on the desktop catches up I will probably be running LinuxPPC. However if I had to run intel hardware I would be running Linux due to its stability and easy of use for a developer. I run it on my servers for the same reason. This is the choice I have made, nothing more exciting than that.
BTW when people ask me for a computer recommendation (non-technical people) I show them the Mac. Why? Cause it just works.
Most of the people who DEVELOP items for Linux or BSD are not trying to take over the desktop. It is only the "zealots" that think Linux is about killing Microsoft. Linux is about choice and open software. That's it!
Personally I would love to see Microsoft survive but be knocked off their monopoly status. Let them continue to make software but, and this is the important part, not be able to control the software and pc industry.
Does this mean Linux on grandma's machine? Probably not. Linux is great for developers, not so great for grandma. Perhaps Grandma will run windows or OSX! But being able to have that kind of choice is what it is all about.
MS making moves like this have one goal in mind. Their goal is to remove choice and freedom from the computer industry. That is what all of us are fighting against.
If you do not know the difference between MS and Linux/GPL then what are you doing reading/.????
MS wants everyone locked into a single proprietary platform. GPL (Linux included) is about freedom of choice.
Java is a good foundation language to teach in universities. Last time I checked though, Sun wasn't "convincing" people to teach it in schools? Different schools have "choosen" to teach it. Big difference.
The duration of a project is inversely proporational to its difficulty.
As stated before, the GUI for a developer is quite different than the GUI for an End-User. If your developers had difficulties getting Mozilla (or even Konqueror) plus OpenOffice working on a reasonably recent release of Linux I would again strongly suggest you verify their resume's. Non-technical people can get this up and running.
Again my comments were directed towards development. Not reviewing the project manager's documents, browsing/., or reading email. Yes these are part of a developer's day, but have very little, if anything, to do with actual development. If you really think that they have something to do with it, I would guess you are their manager.
Your comments were pointed towards the developers having issues on Linux. Not end users. Developers and end users are two different animals. End users can have difficulties with a coffee pot. As for issues with network connections I would be curious to hear more details in this area since that is one area that Linux excels at, as opposed to some other OSes.
My comments were all geared towards your points that your "developers" were having difficulties on the Linux enviroment which was scary at best. Linux as an end user enviroment is not there yet. Agreed, beaten to death, move on.
The flickering you are seeing on your windows box is due (this is claimed, not my opinion) from the Windows JVM being able to access parts of the GUI code that Sun's JVM does not or cannot.
I have noticed, however, that Sun's JVM runs great on every other operating system other than windows. Having said that, non-GUI apps run as well as expected on Windows and run MUCH faster with Sun's JVM as opposed to MS's JVM. I suggest you grab Java 1.4 and give it a try. Much faster than MS's ancient outdated JVM. Not to mention that the GUI access has been drastically improved in 1.4
I would have to honestly question the skill of those four "very experienced software engineers".
Having made the switch myself to use a Linux desktop for all of my development work my productivity skyrocketed, as did of other developers who made the switch with me.
I would question whether these developers are used to using some kind of visual widget development enviroment that is not available on Linux? That would cause them a certain amount of delay. However, if those developers were using editors and command line tools I would verify their resumes if I were you.
Having the ability to use command line scripting, make, grep, et al. while developing makes the Linux enviroment a lot more efficient than a windows enviroment. If your developer is coming from a Unix world the switch-over is almost completely pain free.
A windows enviroment is hardly a "reliable" enviroment. Development on a windows box is painful at best, having kernel level memory leaks, lack of control of the development enviroment makes it a worst case enviroment not a best case. BTW, what makes you think that windows is the "defacto" standard for development?
As for OSX, yes it is a fantastic GUI. Apple definitely has the best looking interface around right now. However, the interface has NOTHING to do with development! Again, if you are using a widget factory, then I could understand your point of view. But it is what is under the hood that makes a development enviroment great, not the "gee wiz" factor of its GUI. Under the hood OSX is using an older BSD core. While it definitely works, Linux is quite far ahead of it.
Your criticisms appear to be from the same world as others come from. "It does not look as pretty so it must suck". I suggest you poll other "experienced software engineers" in the world and see what the "defacto" opinion is.
Linux is ok but I wont hold a candle to my suns stability
So are you comparing the stability of Linux (the OS) against Solaris (the OS) or saying that Linux is not as stable as your Sun hardware?
Comparing Linux to Sun hardware is comparing apples to oranges. Sun hardware is much more stable than x86 hardware. Now if you were comparing Solaris to Linux on equal hardware, I wonder which would be more stable. I am willing to bet it would be Linux.
Nevertheless, comparing Linux to Sun Hardware makes no sense at all.
Well in the US I have seen some amazing incompetent people receive degrees. I have also seen H1B's that could not build a simple code structure like a database pool.
College Exams are worthless in the modern age. I am talking about certification on specific technologies not just some blanket degree.
Think about this one, would you want a D.O. performing brain surgery? That is what is happening today (and worse) in the tech field.
On the one hand you have the hard working people wanting to come over to America and do a good job. That is what the system was set up for.
However on the other hand you have the manipulators of the system. Having seen this side of it first hand I can tell you that some things do need to be changed. I have seen companies bring over workers to the US which know next to nothing about programming (other than some quick classes) and higher them out at cheap wages. The people do it so they can get into the US. Companies do it to make a buck. Are these people qualified for the positions? Not even close. I knew of two recently, both of which were Certified Java Engineers who could not code to save their lives. They spent most of their time cruising the net and writing code that didn't work worth a crap. Eventually they were let go and they went on to the next unsuspecting company.
While the intentions of the system were good and honorable, they are in fact being abused! The system does need to change. One suggestion I have had which tends to fall on deaf ears is a matter of liscensing engineers. Require extremely hard exams to be passed before you can be considered an engineer. Have different levels of test, progressively harder, to reach the next level. This will filter our the lazy americans who are out to make a quick buck and will filter out the immigrants who are also not qualified for the positions.
The Tech industry is in the middle of an upturn. A lot of people who joined during the.com times will have to go back to their original jobs. It all comes down to qualifications, we need a system to seperate the wheat from the shaft.
Hmmm Oracle/Sun being more stable would be the first thought off the top of my head. More secure as well.
As for being locked into a proprietary solution going with J2EE I guess I am confused on that one. How can developing J2EE applications lock you in? Don't like the server? Jump ship go to something else. Change the config files and you are good to go. Don't like the database? Welcome to JDBC, slap in a different driver, point it a different direction and your good to go?
Maybe my definition of proprietary is different...
I would have to disagree that Java is dead on the client. I think it suffered a major stroke with AWT and then again with the first versions of Swing.
However with the release of 1.4, there have been vast improvements made on the client side (read GUI) that makes it much more viable as an option. The company I am currently with is designing an entire GUI with Swing and so far things have been very positive.
On the server side, however, Java is king. There are very few "single" technologies that can do as much as smoothly as Java does. Yes you can do everything that Java does with other technologies, but using a single technology, Java owns this arena currently.
.NET is new. People are suspicious of it. A large number of developers out there view it as a clone and say "why do we want it"..NET does give you less in the interoperability department (basically windows only) than J2EE does plus it still has to prove itself.
Give.net a couple more years. It will either get a foothold or die. Personally, I hope it dies.
Each person's impression of a piece of software is different. So me telling you how I would do something with the software does nothing for you since my way of thinking/doing things may not make any sense to you at all. (Especially since I am a programmer and you are a manager, totally different mindset).
My suggestion to you was and is download OpenOffice for your windows machine and let your secretary play with it. Let her determine for herself how hard it is. That is the best way to make an informed decision as to the viability of linux based or Open Source software is for you and your company.
Taking my word or my examples (or anyone else's for that matter) as gospel would be foolhardy at best.
The three steps you described above are extraordinarily easy in software available for Linux. Having used MS Office and Linux Office applications I can tell you that any competent secretary will take a very short amount of time to make the switch.
While it is true that the majority of people who use computers are not experts or advanced users, most of the people who use a computer in an office enviroment will be able to make the switch with little to no help.
BTW Most office software for Linux reads MS documents just fine. And I routinely print documents in PDF format directly from my office applications.
I suggest reviewing OpenOffice and trying out some of the software. You can even download them for windows I believe.
The three steps you described above are extraordinarily in software available for Linux. Having used MS Office and Linux Office applications I can tell you that any competent secretary will take a very short amount of time to make the switch.
While it is true that the majority of people who use computers are not experts or advanced users, most of the people who use a computer in an office enviroment will be able to make the switch with little to no help.
BTW Most office software for Linux reads MS documents just fine.
Where is your basis for this? Stating that "nobody" codes to anything greater than Java 1.1.x is so completely untrue that it is frightening someone would say it.
Java developers code to the current release which is 1.4.0. Perhaps code monkeys working in J++ only code to 1.1.x but MOST java developers code in 1.4.0 or at worst 1.3.x.
Only when you do not know your code base, and you know that people will be out there using IE do you consider "coding down" to 1.1.x. Otherwise you write to the current version and then use a script or some kind of notice to the user that they need to upgrade.
Applets will not disappear in 5 years..NET will replace very little due to its soon to be found security bugs (prediction).
Slashdot Mirror
OSX onto x86 would be like putting the body of a Jaguar (no pun intended) on the guts of a Yugo. Sure you could do it, but why bother?
Any code that the source is open and available for modification is "open source" code. Period end of statement. MS code does not fall into this category for the simple reason that you are not allowed to modify it nor is the entire code base available for review. However, Resin is an example of "open source" code. Developers can review the source and even modify it for their own use and *gasp* can submit the code back to resin to be integrated.
Free Sofware aka "the Open Source Movement" is complete different than a company opening its source code and allowing people to use it in a non-GPLed license. What is so bad about that? Resin allows people to use it for FREE for development and even small businesses get to use it for free.
Why must the Open Source Zealots(tm) demand that everything they *consider* to be open source must also be completely free of a pricetag? There is a world of difference between what Resin and other companies like them are doing and what Microsoft, et al. are doing. Stop thinking in extremes.
Developers can view the source and are able to make changes which can then be submitted back. That is open source software. It just happens to be 'non-free' open source. But still open source none the less.
I agree that it is harder but a lot safer than hoping someone won't stick bad code in there for "auto" deployment.
Made sense to me as well
Actually resin is open source but it is non-free. It is not licensed under the GPL but it is still "open source".
The GPL is a choice. People are not "locked" into it if they choose to use GPL software. The GPL has absolutely nothing to do with people using the software. It has to do with people expanding or enhancing the software. I can use a GPLed OS and put proprietary code on it if I want. I do this all day long running my company's software on a Linux box. Lets not try to make the GPL sound like some kind of virus. It is a licensing choice.
You are correct that one C# course is not going to kill anyone. However, as history has shown time and again, freedom is not taken away all at once, it is taken away a bit at a time and each little bit seems like "no big deal". One day you look up and you have no choices anymore and cry foul. Some of us remember the days before Microsoft and have seen how far it has eroded already. I agree this is just one small item, but it is yet another step towards losing all freedom in the technology arena.
Linux is still maturing, when the gui is close to Aqua I will probably switch, but for right now, on my development platform, I chose to run my Powerbook and Aqua. The hardware is great and the gui makes sense and does not get in my way. When Linux on the desktop catches up I will probably be running LinuxPPC. However if I had to run intel hardware I would be running Linux due to its stability and easy of use for a developer. I run it on my servers for the same reason. This is the choice I have made, nothing more exciting than that.
BTW when people ask me for a computer recommendation (non-technical people) I show them the Mac. Why? Cause it just works.
Personally I would love to see Microsoft survive but be knocked off their monopoly status. Let them continue to make software but, and this is the important part, not be able to control the software and pc industry.
Does this mean Linux on grandma's machine? Probably not. Linux is great for developers, not so great for grandma. Perhaps Grandma will run windows or OSX! But being able to have that kind of choice is what it is all about.
MS making moves like this have one goal in mind. Their goal is to remove choice and freedom from the computer industry. That is what all of us are fighting against.
sniff...sniff... what is that smell? Perhaps a troll is about?
MS wants everyone locked into a single proprietary platform. GPL (Linux included) is about freedom of choice.
Java is a good foundation language to teach in universities. Last time I checked though, Sun wasn't "convincing" people to teach it in schools? Different schools have "choosen" to teach it. Big difference.
The duration of a project is inversely proporational to its difficulty.
Again my comments were directed towards development. Not reviewing the project manager's documents, browsing /., or reading email. Yes these are part of a developer's day, but have very little, if anything, to do with actual development. If you really think that they have something to do with it, I would guess you are their manager.
My comments were all geared towards your points that your "developers" were having difficulties on the Linux enviroment which was scary at best. Linux as an end user enviroment is not there yet. Agreed, beaten to death, move on.
I have noticed, however, that Sun's JVM runs great on every other operating system other than windows. Having said that, non-GUI apps run as well as expected on Windows and run MUCH faster with Sun's JVM as opposed to MS's JVM. I suggest you grab Java 1.4 and give it a try. Much faster than MS's ancient outdated JVM. Not to mention that the GUI access has been drastically improved in 1.4
Having made the switch myself to use a Linux desktop for all of my development work my productivity skyrocketed, as did of other developers who made the switch with me.
I would question whether these developers are used to using some kind of visual widget development enviroment that is not available on Linux? That would cause them a certain amount of delay. However, if those developers were using editors and command line tools I would verify their resumes if I were you.
Having the ability to use command line scripting, make, grep, et al. while developing makes the Linux enviroment a lot more efficient than a windows enviroment. If your developer is coming from a Unix world the switch-over is almost completely pain free.
A windows enviroment is hardly a "reliable" enviroment. Development on a windows box is painful at best, having kernel level memory leaks, lack of control of the development enviroment makes it a worst case enviroment not a best case. BTW, what makes you think that windows is the "defacto" standard for development?
As for OSX, yes it is a fantastic GUI. Apple definitely has the best looking interface around right now. However, the interface has NOTHING to do with development! Again, if you are using a widget factory, then I could understand your point of view. But it is what is under the hood that makes a development enviroment great, not the "gee wiz" factor of its GUI. Under the hood OSX is using an older BSD core. While it definitely works, Linux is quite far ahead of it.
Your criticisms appear to be from the same world as others come from. "It does not look as pretty so it must suck". I suggest you poll other "experienced software engineers" in the world and see what the "defacto" opinion is.
So are you comparing the stability of Linux (the OS) against Solaris (the OS) or saying that Linux is not as stable as your Sun hardware?
Comparing Linux to Sun hardware is comparing apples to oranges. Sun hardware is much more stable than x86 hardware. Now if you were comparing Solaris to Linux on equal hardware, I wonder which would be more stable. I am willing to bet it would be Linux.
Nevertheless, comparing Linux to Sun Hardware makes no sense at all.
Do a search for it on sourceforge.com. I am sure you can grab it from the cvs easily enough.
Truly an amazing post. This really hits the nail on the head. Shame it can only be modded up so far!
College Exams are worthless in the modern age. I am talking about certification on specific technologies not just some blanket degree.
Think about this one, would you want a D.O. performing brain surgery? That is what is happening today (and worse) in the tech field.
On the one hand you have the hard working people wanting to come over to America and do a good job. That is what the system was set up for.
However on the other hand you have the manipulators of the system. Having seen this side of it first hand I can tell you that some things do need to be changed. I have seen companies bring over workers to the US which know next to nothing about programming (other than some quick classes) and higher them out at cheap wages. The people do it so they can get into the US. Companies do it to make a buck. Are these people qualified for the positions? Not even close. I knew of two recently, both of which were Certified Java Engineers who could not code to save their lives. They spent most of their time cruising the net and writing code that didn't work worth a crap. Eventually they were let go and they went on to the next unsuspecting company.
While the intentions of the system were good and honorable, they are in fact being abused! The system does need to change. One suggestion I have had which tends to fall on deaf ears is a matter of liscensing engineers. Require extremely hard exams to be passed before you can be considered an engineer. Have different levels of test, progressively harder, to reach the next level. This will filter our the lazy americans who are out to make a quick buck and will filter out the immigrants who are also not qualified for the positions.
The Tech industry is in the middle of an upturn. A lot of people who joined during the .com times will have to go back to their original jobs. It all comes down to qualifications, we need a system to seperate the wheat from the shaft.
As for being locked into a proprietary solution going with J2EE I guess I am confused on that one. How can developing J2EE applications lock you in? Don't like the server? Jump ship go to something else. Change the config files and you are good to go. Don't like the database? Welcome to JDBC, slap in a different driver, point it a different direction and your good to go?
Maybe my definition of proprietary is different...
However with the release of 1.4, there have been vast improvements made on the client side (read GUI) that makes it much more viable as an option. The company I am currently with is designing an entire GUI with Swing and so far things have been very positive.
On the server side, however, Java is king. There are very few "single" technologies that can do as much as smoothly as Java does. Yes you can do everything that Java does with other technologies, but using a single technology, Java owns this arena currently.
Give .net a couple more years. It will either get a foothold or die. Personally, I hope it dies.
My suggestion to you was and is download OpenOffice for your windows machine and let your secretary play with it. Let her determine for herself how hard it is. That is the best way to make an informed decision as to the viability of linux based or Open Source software is for you and your company.
Taking my word or my examples (or anyone else's for that matter) as gospel would be foolhardy at best.
While it is true that the majority of people who use computers are not experts or advanced users, most of the people who use a computer in an office enviroment will be able to make the switch with little to no help.
BTW Most office software for Linux reads MS documents just fine. And I routinely print documents in PDF format directly from my office applications.
I suggest reviewing OpenOffice and trying out some of the software. You can even download them for windows I believe.
Sig lines are for wimps with a sense of humor
The three steps you described above are extraordinarily in software available for Linux. Having used MS Office and Linux Office applications I can tell you that any competent secretary will take a very short amount of time to make the switch. While it is true that the majority of people who use computers are not experts or advanced users, most of the people who use a computer in an office enviroment will be able to make the switch with little to no help. BTW Most office software for Linux reads MS documents just fine.
Where is your basis for this? Stating that "nobody" codes to anything greater than Java 1.1.x is so completely untrue that it is frightening someone would say it.
Java developers code to the current release which is 1.4.0. Perhaps code monkeys working in J++ only code to 1.1.x but MOST java developers code in 1.4.0 or at worst 1.3.x.
Only when you do not know your code base, and you know that people will be out there using IE do you consider "coding down" to 1.1.x. Otherwise you write to the current version and then use a script or some kind of notice to the user that they need to upgrade.
Applets will not disappear in 5 years. .NET will replace very little due to its soon to be found security bugs (prediction).
Post fact otherwise get labeled as a troll.