[ale] Ernie Ball says F.Y. to Microsoft

[runman at speedfactory.net]

What developers are we talking about here ?  The ones who work 40 hour jobs and program for fun or those who expect to get paid to write these apps ?  If you are waiting for "free" software (as in beer) then it is tough luck, as the Open Source/hacker culture seems to still be sorta "you want it - you do it (or pay someone) or wait until a SourceForge project gets going.  If it is the later, then I just don't see any companies doing OS software hiring, and the rates are about 1/2 of those for MS developers.  I know this for a fact.  I like to eat and the only OS stuff I do is for a few folks and myself.  OS development jobs are dammed near non-existent.

Also, lets not forget what it takes to develop/test/market/support apps if a company is to write them.  And if it is GPL'd, then you will only make $ by support.  Also, what language to do it in ?  and what tools do we use to write it ?  And how much to support the different Linux/BSD systems out there ??  Would this be like it was before MS came to power and everyone ran everything on everything ??  or would it be "run our app on foo Linux/BSD on this bar hardware setup" ???

And what about what you are going against ?? You can say what you want about MS, but nothing comes close to Visual Studio 6 - it can do RAD developement that can cover about 75% of a businessess software needs in VB (that ties into the Office stuff), heavy lifting is done by C++, and the web stuff is handled by InterDev - and it all runs on all your favorite MS systems.  I have seen about all of the other IDE's out there (both free and for $$) as well as text editors and Visual Studio still stands out.  If there was an OS alternative, it would really go a long way to furthering OS development.  Also, what language to do these apps in ?  Java GUI (and which java sdk ?) ? web stuff ? the Gnome C++ libs or KDE/Trolltech libs ???  ooh oooh , let's not forget Tcl/Tk.  Or maybe C using 10 million lines of code (ok, I kinda like doing this for some stuff).  This point has also been hashed over too.  And let's not get into the dependency hell that is the bane of all software (OS as well as proprietary).

I don't know the answer, but I think the question has several layers of issues that perhaps Mr. Ball is not aware of - though I also think that the answers are  out there.  Perhaps if folks were willing to pony up the dough for developers to  "tweak" certain apps to fit their business, then perhaps they could get what they want.  However, unless paid, I tend to write/contribute to only projects that interest me and not particularly a business owner.

And hats off to Mr. Ball.  What a dude.

Greg

> 
> --=-ELlA8OiyYJGCpj66gsHv
> Content-Type: text/plain
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
> 
> On Wed, 2003-08-20 at 15:47, Irv Mullins wrote:
> > On Wednesday 20 August 2003 03:33 pm, hbbs at comcast.net wrote:
> > > http://news.com.com/2008-1082_3-5065859.html?tag=3Dfd_lede2_hed
> >=20
> > Interesting. Also note how he accurately points to the greatest factor th=
> at is=20
> > preventing Linux from gaining wider acceptance:
> >=20
> > "But the developers need to start writing the real-world applications peo=
> ple=20
> > need to run a business...engineering, art and design tools, that kind of=20
> > stuff...They're all trying to build servers that already exist and do a w=
> hole=20
> > bunch of stuff that's already out there...I think there's a lot of room t=
> o=20
> > not just create an alternative to Microsoft but really take the next step=
>  and=20
> > do something new. "
> 
> There is some real kick-ass stuff out there right now. SQL-ledger is a
> great bookkeeping package for SMB. Compiere is an incredible CRM package
> that integrates with SQL-ledger. (Too bad Compiere still uses Oracle as
> a back-end. PostgreSQL port is underway, but stalled due to some heavy
> technical issues)
> 
> I am forwarding that link to all of my clients who still insist on using
> M$ crap.
> --=20
> James P. Kinney III          \Changing the mobile computing world/
> CEO & Director of Engineering \          one Linux user         /
> Local Net Solutions,LLC        \           at a time.          /
> 770-493-8244                    \.___________________________./
> http://www.localnetsolutions.com
> 
> GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics) <jkinney at localnetsoluti=
> ons.com>
> Fingerprint =3D 3C9E 6366 54FC A3FE BA4D 0659 6190 ADC3 829C 6CA7=20
> 
> --=-ELlA8OiyYJGCpj66gsHv
> Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name=signature.asc
> Content-Description: This is a digitally signed message part
> 
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: GnuPG v1.0.7 (GNU/Linux)
> 
> iD8DBQA/Q9gwYZCtw4KcbKcRAi77AKCYLZdM5Phm0K8i1T0dUaUmwjAqTgCgkoBN
> 7eqPqjWhN7n38Gba4y3TMxQ=
> =ehBZ
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
> 
> --=-ELlA8OiyYJGCpj66gsHv--
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>

_______________________________________________
Ale mailing list
Ale at ale.org
http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale