Now wait, before you say anything, I want you to do me a favor, I want you to pretend we're just having a chat. It's you and me, we were just at a conference, or an expo, or a workshop or something. I noticed your tee shirt on the street, whatever, something happened and now we're talking tech, it's going well. Have you seen the stuff you can do with Jquery? RIA, what do you think? Then it happens, one of us brings it up and the lines are drawn.
Oh, you're a .NET developer? Run Vista? That's cool.
Wait, you live on Leopard? You think iPhone apps are the new wave?
We both know this wont end well. One of us is going to talk UI and hardware performance, the other computability and support... we're never going to agree, so let's just talk politics... FISA, will we ever recover?
There are wars fought world wide over arbitrary ideals, developers will be the first people to tell you that. Why can't we apply the same unbiased principles to ourselves? Why must we throw our souls behind any million dollar corporation that makes the thing we happen to relate to the most? What exactly do Apple, Linux, and Microsoft compete on? Operating systems? They all specialize in very different things, it doesn't seem like they should be a threat to each other. They also offer much more then just OS's, I bet Apple and Microsoft both make much more money in other things than OS packages. Why are we feeding their gluttonous revenue streams by turning against each other?
Linux/Unbutu guy, we know how little you need UI. You make your own operating system, and you're not afraid of a challenge. No one holds your hand, if it's tough you figure it out. You're the triathelete of developers, and we'll never forget that.
Oh you Apple lover, we know how close your relationship is with your users. OS X is good looking, and easy to use. We know what respect you have for true color, for beauty and art in design, you can't accept a sub par UX in exchange for functionality. You know simple and attractive is agile, we think you have a point.
.NET developer, we don't think you're a fanboi. We know that you respect quality, reputation, and stability. We don't think you're a follower, really, we know you're leading the way in cutting edge technology. So what people don't think you're edgy off the bat, they have no idea what kind of difference you are making in the industry.
Instead of letting big brother corporations buy our allegiance with straw man advertisements and snazzy swag, why don't we make this market what it should be. Let's invest in the products that are the BEST. Also, that's just a matter of preference and opinion! There is no Bible here. Myself? I love my Vista, it's really snazzy and fast, after all I develop in .NET. I'm running it on a Mac Book Pro. I have an iPhone, I'm writing this article in Open Office, I use Subversion. I think that when I'm editing HTML/CSS the only place to be is in Firefox, when I'm surfing it's only IE. I keep Leopard on my machine so that I can be more familiar for my users. For me this isn't about a “team” or a “side.”
Believe me, I know. Mac is the little guy, Linux even littler. Microsoft is the New England Patriots of the Software world, secretly, lots of people love to see them lose. Guess what, though, they do a lot of things really well. Until they stop, I'm going to use their product. When someone makes what I need better I will be using that.
Though, if you really just want to take the side of wherever the cool kids are have I got a product for you. It's an operating system, and it's brand new, cutting edge. Not even out yet, don't ell anyone but I can get you a hot copy of Windows Mojave before it even hits the streets. Just make your check out to “Girl Developer” and you'll be one step ahead of those Apple dorks. They'll be too busy eating their granola and smelling like patchouli to know what hit them.
When all is said and done Apple fanboys will continue being dorks who believe in their corporations perfection and will justify any and all evils done to them by the aforementioned corporation.
ReplyDeleteLinux fanboys are of the mind 'anyone can use linux if they just try hard enough to get it', though most people don't have the time or patience to try.
Windows fanboys? They actually sound fairly rational in the face of the irrational attacks they are dealt from Apple/Linux fanboys.
heyyyy! you have open avatars +1 respect for you =)
ReplyDeleteYou remind me a lot of an early version of Jeff Atwood. Before he gloratized all his posts with images. This post was great.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the great work.
I really think the interoperability barriers tend to segregate the communities. If these big three (MS, Apple, *nix) would work from the same sets of standards all the time, then each technology could be leveraged for its strengths and actual heterogeneous environments could exist. As it is, that's still a tricky proposition at best.
ReplyDeletebecause you aren't nekkid?
ReplyDeletewow...another perv besides me and erika!
ReplyDeleteSorry I was staring at the pic too much. what were you talking about in the blog??
ReplyDeleteCall me crazy, but I think it's as simple as whatever you get used to and feel most comfortable with. An operating system is a sort of fundamental aspect for a developer -- it determines (or at the very least strongly contributes to) your development style, the tools you use and your perspective of software development. It's the reason some folks love IDEs while others swear by vimacs and the shell.
ReplyDeleteIt takes a certain degree of courage to walk away from something you know well -- especially so in this case, given the platform is a fundamental aspect of the way you work -- and to take a good hard look at another way of doing things. Some people come out the other side with a preference for the new, others come out of it feeling their opinions have merely been reinforced.
Either way, I think it's important to be able to see the positive in something different rather than just blindly dismissing it as crap and taking nothing from the experience.
Yes, developers and geeks have preferences and feelings too. And what a boring world it would be, if we all agreed on everything. Is it really any different than when people argue whether football (soccer is a sissy sport, only girls play and there are never any goals) is better or worse than American Football (padded rugby, steroid pumped men who can only sprint 15 seconds at a time before taking a 2 min. break)?
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, I think Microsoft did a lot of harm with their policies and behavior which they are not paying for. Apple might actually be even worse, but currently have the Microsoft escapee and gadget fanboys in their staple - but that won't last forever.
Have you even tried Ubuntu? If you're a Java developer like me, it's hands down, light years ahead of Vista. I realize you're a .net developer, but for my company, we're so much happier staying away from Windows at all costs. Platform utilities that help developers (like Ethereal, Mercurial, Subversion, MySQL, Eclipse) are supported well.
ReplyDeleteI'll concede Ubuntu isn't perfect (iPod/iPhone support is bad, but that's not really an issue now is it?), but considering the fact that even the utilities I mentioned earlier are automatically updated through Ubuntu's package management system, Ubuntu keeps all of us up to date. Package management systems have been around a long time, and kudos to Apple for using one. But to consider using Windows as a development environment for Java is simply not an option. With Windows, it's up to every individual developer to keep their environment on its latest version. Not good.
I'm not speaking as a Linux fanboy, but you have applaud what Ubuntu has become. If you haven't tried it, it really is easier to install programs using the package manager than installing anything on Windows.
Ohh I second matt's opinion, as a new refugee from Windows. I happen to love the .NET technologies and language features (well ahead of Java in productivity and consistency) but as a Java developer Ubuntu really can't be beat.
ReplyDeleteWhat ultimately pushed me over was when Vista for the 3'rd time since I got it, had gotten an update which it applied and rebooted during a lunch break, loosing a long and important email I was in the process of writing.
I admit, I never tried Mac. It appears to be nice hardware and a clean interface, but I see little point in going from one proprietary empire to another. Ubuntu has come far, even .NET application development is improving constantly - thanks to the Mono guys.
os/2 is better
ReplyDelete*sigh* you had me until you said you browse with IE.
ReplyDeleteWow, get along hugh! How can I when I wish Microsoft imploded before The Tonight Show ends yesterday!
ReplyDeleteI love differences, contrasts, my better than yours. I love competition and derision.
Do you say we play their (companies) game? Nah, they give us the amo for the game we love to play.
Never rest fanboy! Keep it up. And you Girl Developer, hide your pacifism if you wish to survive.
Is that nazi avatar assigned by your blog reserved as a political statement? I stand for freedom and not statism. I'd change that avatar.
ReplyDelete'Religious technologists', that's what we call them. They boast of their respective platforms(and verbally abuse others') in a My-Religion-is-Better-Then-Yours sort of way. It's really difficult, if not impossible, for them to live in harmony. Nevertheless you must be praised for your effort.
ReplyDeleteOur arbitrary decisions, our diversity, our diverging opinions are what makes us stronger. The conflicts which we make arbitrarily lead to better software, superior standards, more usable interfaces.
ReplyDeleteWithout fanboys there would be no progress. Without being able to disagree on issues there would be no need for change and without being able to agree on issues we wouldn't be able to collaborate enough to build communities and bring individual expertise to a project.
The world needs fanboys. It needs dissent. Just as much as it needs people to agree on things.
Lawl I'm linux...though I must say, Linux really isn't hard at ALL to use anymore thanks to Mark Shuttleworth. Ubuntu is changing the linux landscape as you can see (http://www.distrowatch.com) its even overtaken Fedora as the top distro.
ReplyDeleteYeah I guess everyone has their niche. Apple users though...overspend for good UI. Thats my take on it at any rate. Their hardware just isn't as top notch as everyone says and they sell for so much more than comparable PCs or laptops. I just bought a souped up cyberpower xplorer for 1000 bucks. The same hardware from Apple would be $2500.
food for thought...
holy hell :O
ReplyDeleteEvery blog I read made you sexier than the last blog you wrote... k, so you're an anomaly.. it is just unnatural for a woman to be attractive AND bright, AND quick AND fluid AND AND ... a programmer :|
you're a machine right? Created by some future war between stuff in fantasy that hasn't actually happened yet?
I will definitely come here more often to read your wondrous iterations and transliterations which can only come out of the mind that spends far too much time writing code in color and sound while sleeping, and very little time having to actually code...
and it's not stalking if you're not bookmarked... (just write it off to a far to easy domain)...
k, well it's 10:27pm and i'm in awe of the magic of knowing that girls like you really really do exist...
course i could be sleeping and this is one of those amazing dreams that will soon be interrupted by some random email that will make me have to wake up and login to something somewhere, for someone else who needs a report before they hit starbucks tomorrow...
MS is at war, but Apple isn't. This is the reason for MS's stagnation ever since Ballmer got the big chair to throw around. He fixates on competition, which results in money-burning disasters like their online services and gaming consoles. Companies like Apple or Google concentrate on the customers.
ReplyDelete