

Escape from Microsoft bubble - johngorse
https://blooki.st/BlookElement/ShowTextPhoto?blookElementId=6164

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gum_ina_package
The thing is I'm sure there's a very good reason his company mandates a
Windows stack for all the development he's doing - the MS dev stack (for the
most part) will not break when you update your system, install a new patch,
upgrade your .NET framework, etc. etc.

Personally I can't stand Windows for web development (although Node looks
awesome in VS), but there's advantages to both. The author seems to express
regret and a feeling he missed out, but would he have become a better
developer for embracing the alternatives he mentioned? Would he really have
been able to get his work done better and more efficiently? He didn't provide
any evidence of this.

~~~
mattmcknight
What other stack would break when you update your .NET framework or update
your system? I don't see that as very valid reason, most stacks have
dependency management tools.

The one thing you save with the MS stack is time spent choosing and evaluating
tools, you just pick whatever MS is offering.

~~~
gum_ina_package
What I meant was that, from my experience, updating/upgrading an open source
tech stack usually causes the application it's running to break. I end up
spending a day or two fixing things, where with a MS stack that rarely
happens.

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drawkbox
There are lots of bubbles or spheres of technology, some companies like
Microsoft/Apple, others more open.

The particular thing about the Microsoft bubble/sphere is that it acts like a
very overly attached parent that does everything for the kid (developer) and
really can make them successful within their realm. But the nix/open other
bubbles are where programmers have to know more, be more manual and be more
independent. It is more of a street knowledge type game where the Microsoft
bubble is the scheduled childhood. On the extreme, developers in Microsoft
bubbles (or other bubbles for that matter Rails, Node.js) are like
cults/religions.

There are good and bad sides to this type of approach to developers on a
platform. They'll constantly look to Microsoft for solutions rather than
independent open source ones (changing a bit but only recently). It is easy to
see why companies like using this tech.

Now with overlay attached or strict parents, sometimes the kids when they see
the real world, they run for the hills.

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marshray
Read the article again with:

    
    
        s/Visual Studio/emacs/g
        s/MSSQL/Sleepycat/g
        s/C[#]/emacs lisp/g
    

:-)

Disclosure: I work at MSFT, but I just thought this was fun.

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nobullet
Hello, world! There lots of great technologies to work with behind the MS:
NodeJS, PlayFramework, Django and Ruby on Rails - perfect tools for web
development. Javascript, Dart, Coffee script - web development
languages/platforms. Android, Objective C with/without the Apple's iOS - the
best tools for mobile development and desktop. Qt - best UI crossplatform
framework for all OS like Linux, Windows.

Just choose the language/technology of your choice.

That's the top of the iceberg.

~~~
yulaow
Also, if he really wants to use a shell, he can easily install cygwin or just
learn powershell. I use both ms-tecnology than linux for work, and I like and
hate some parts of both.

I think OP biggest problem is the fact that he used only the "main" (as "more
common") tools of his os, ignoring that you can easily run almost any
tecnology stack over it without the need of change the os itself

~~~
robbrown451
The shell is a second class citizen on Windows, and "the Microsoft way"
discourages its use.

~~~
spo81rty
I don't know if I would say discourages it. It is more a different style.
Point and click GUIs and wizards versus memorizing command line commands.

~~~
tacticus
Wonderfully verbose and difficult to repeat and document vs easy to
automate\document is another way of putting the gui vs cli

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spo81rty
I think the point here is some people like to tinker with new things. There is
a balance to strike here. Some do live in a bubble. On the other extreme are
people who jump from one new thing to the next. Understanding the tools
available is great but becoming an expert at something is import too. Most
important thing is creating great products no matter what you use to build it.
Your users don't care what it was developed in.

~~~
marshray
If you use only the tools your employer wants you to use at work in all
likelihood within 2-5 years your skills will be obsolete to the point of you
being nearly unemployable.

Of course, not always, depends on you, depends on your employer, depends on
luck, but this is just my perception from working in software companies for
most of the last 30 years.

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moystard
The link does not work, and the layout of blooki.st seems to be completely
broken on Firefox 27 (OSX)

~~~
fournm
Link "works" fine except yeah it's a completely white page for me in Firefox.
Actually, in everything that isn't Chrome.

~~~
robin_reala
Works if you grab the Google cache:
[https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https%...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https%3A%2F%2Fblooki.st%2FBlookElement%2FShowTextPhoto%3FblookElementId%3D6164)

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DenisM
The entire articles boils down to "I've been using MS tools, but now I use
'free' tools, and rediscovered command line". There isn't any plot, or a
point, or a revelation, or a comparison between stacks in this missive.
Nothing at all.

~~~
johngorse
Wow, I didn't realize that It will be such a hype with this article :) What I
was trying to say is, that in all those years that I worked in MS
technologies, I completly overlooked other tehnologies. I just wanted to
express, that a man has to have his eyes wide open. And I get a feeling, that
open source guys has much more wide range of knowledge on all areas. Where did
you first heard a news on HTML5? On HN or on some MSDN forum? This is what I
was tryin to explain.

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kyberias
I'm sure there are a number of technological bubbles in our field of
profession. The Microsoft bubble is a pretty good one.

------
Rygu
A good IDE with an advanced toolchain is not hip, nope I give you that. But it
just works.

