Are Slashdotters really 99% ignorant?

Every once in awhile I'll pop over to Slashdot to see what the peeps have to say about something newsworthy. At the very least you can find some Gates-hating to laugh at. I can't for the life of me figure out the structure of their comment system (I am, after all, a mindless drone .NET developer), but I found some choice comments.

“MS are worried that the windows platform is hemorrhaging developers to linux/OS X platforms.”
That's a pretty good one. Call me crazy, but the recruiters call now more than ever, and we're shipping people in from all over the world to fill .NET jobs in the Greater Cleveland area. Maybe his definition of “hemorrhaging” is different than mine.

“Actually this is a move to knock out DevC++, gcc, Eclipse, and Netbeans.
The more you get people to use "windows only" solutions the better microsoft feels.
They know it is all about the developers and want to lock them down as hard and as fast they can.”
I'm sure that last part was at the front of Rob Howard's mind the last few years, right? I'm sure that most folks at Microsoft just want to deliver the most kick ass software they can. That's what drives them. The real benefit to Microsoft is that they sell server licenses. I think it has always been about server licenses, thus the move to build inexpensive IDE's.

“Still, it's clear from these 'express' editions that MS is worried by the number of free alternative IDEs that are springing up - in particular Eclipse.”
Yes, because people are flocking en masse to Eclipse to build .NET apps. Clear, right! I'm guessing that this guy thinks developers are willing to change platforms and languages like they change their underwear everyday. I've never understood this mentality. I know enough about Java to think it's pretty cool, but why the hell would I want to learn it when I'm working to be an expert in .NET? I wouldn't want to hire someone average at a lot of things, I'd want someone to be an expert for what I need.

“Will the EULA allow development of commercial products? Lots of "hobby" or "student" projects end up for sale or as shareware. Will people making that switch then have to buy the real thing?”
Is it that hard to read that this is beta software? If these people understand software development so well, you'd think they'd understand why Microsoft wouldn't want the beta framework floating about. Then again, I'm assuming they understand what the .NET Framework is.

“Microsoft are attempting to lock students in, probably even before they hit tertiary education.”
Again, obviously not familiar with the culture. Students have been using the full Visual Studio in a lot of programs, and getting it cheap. That certainly won't change. Oddly enough, I think the guy that made this comment was the same guy that said you can change-up platforms at any time. Lock-in... sure, that's it.

“Free compilers, what a concept?”
Yeah, one we got like four  years ago.

“I'm still aghast at the number of developers who think that they need Visual Studio, or any IDE for that matter, to develop in .NET/Java/whatever.”
Amen. I want to go back to the days of DOS. I don't need a mouse either. Batch files rule. In fact, I think I'll brush up on my assembler because that's what real programmers do. I've got all the time in the world and my clients understand if it takes a long time to build a product.

Normally I don't even entertain this kind of nonsense, but it's like me trying to talk about biochemistry (I would have no idea what I'm talking about). Enjoy the laughs. I'm sure you've got to get back to writing great software.

15 Comments

  • I don't know what's worse, the silly comments or the fact that they get modded up to "Insightful". That's the real indicator of the site's membership.

  • Jeff, your comments are as retarded as theirs.



    And if you think using mouse is the best thing ever happend to programming think again. Just today I was moving the output directory of one of my projects (five assemblies and few config files). I would have to shoot myself if I had to do that in Visual Studio, according to you it's a lot better to spend half an hour clicking in endless dialogs than changing a single line in a nant build script?



    And you've obviously never used Eclipse, it's a lot better IDE than anything Microsoft has ever done. It's better because it's done by programmers, and it's not targeted to beginners (think people who drag a database onto a web page and wwonder why their data updates are so slow). It may have a lot less fancy stuff but when it comes to writing some code it wins. I don't think Eclipse has to worry, especially not because of Microsoft's release of express visual studio pieces - they're pretty useless for serious work anyways. They're just eye candy for programmer wannabes.



    And personally - the moment Sun releases their control over Java I'm switching. the whole mindset of Java developers is different, it's not about dragging icons with their mouse to create applications, it's about doing it right, understanding what the code does. It's definitelly a result of Microsoft targeting non-developers and letting them think they can write code as well, the actual platforms are pretty much the same, they both have their pros and cons.

  • Heh, I like this line from Jerry's post "[Eclipse] is better [than VS] because it's done by programmers".



    I wonder if he really believes that Visual Studio was created not by programmers, but some sort of "immaculate compilation".

  • Hahahaha. Wasn't that a Madonna album?



    People like Jerry make it religion and attempt tp place everything in a world of absolutes. He finds one thing he can't do and the whole tool is useless. Even better, if a tool offers visual shortcuts, it means that you can only use those and you're a poor programmer. These are "obviously" the rules and the holy truth!



    See you on Slashdot, Jerry! I've got code to write!

  • Amen. I've been meaning to write up a anti-slashdot post but have simply stuck to mocking it with my coworkers. Here's a ludicrous comment I just came across:

    "The number of people affected by Microsoft's crimes against humanity number in the hundreds of millions. I'd even go as far as to say that if Bill Gates had been inside one of the Twin Towers when they fell, the other lives lost would have been worth it."

    http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=112349&cid=9530045



    It is nice to remember that the overwhelming majority of /. readers are out of work. heh.

  • Out of work, eh? Hating Microsoft isn't something you get paid for? I was not aware of that.



    It's fun every once in awhile to get under their skin and mess with them. They get so worked up over this stuff, and I can't for the life of me understand why. When I don't like a product, I either move on to something else or I tell the manufacturer what I don't like about it. Sometimes, they listen! (See: An HTML editor/designer than doesn't suck in VS 2005!)

  • Hillarious, I don't read slashdot and I'm the only one in my company pushing Microsoft's technologies. But because I think Eclipse is better than VS I'm bad... As I said, you guys are no better than /.ers.

  • Quote:

    we're shipping people in from all over the world to fill .NET jobs in the Greater Cleveland area.



    This jumped to my attention. Do you have more Information or a Website ?

  • Russ: Check Monster, CareerBoard.com, FlipDog, etc. Heck, Progressive Insurance alone requires a small army and they'll move the right people.



    No one said you're "bad," Jerry. You just make generalizations about the tool and engage in developer snobbery. That's pretty lame. Those "wannabes" might some day occupy the next cube or office. Perhaps it would be more constructive to help them out instead of dismissing them, eh?

  • Jeff, you nailed it, that's exactly what I'm worried about. That I'll have to work with somebody who says he's a good programmer because he knows how to drag a database connection onto a web form. I have done so much code fixing after people like this in my life that I think it's time to stop letting people think everybody can do it. I think we would all benefit from teaching people how to write good code, by teaching those newbies how to do that instead of giving them tools that don't require them to think about what they're doing.

  • I've been using VS for over 7 years and I have never even tried to "drag a database connection over to a webform". I find that even after I remove/disable the visual designer enhancements, VS is a terrific development environment. I think that changing the build output directory would take... let me visualize here... right click, left click, left click, type new directory, left click. OH MY GOD PLEASE WASTE MY TIME!!!! :-|

  • Jason - I was doing it for a number of different "projects", not just one. That's the whole problem, VS is ok for simple things, where changing the output directory is a matter of few clicks. But doing it ten times as oposed to editing a line in a build file is not the way to go. Btw my way is open a file (a double click), type in new directory, hit Ctrl+S while you're typing and Ctrl+F4. A lot faster than clicking...

  • Jerry, the new VS 2005 project file uses MSBUILD - which is similar to NANT. Are you sure it isn't just as easy as opening a file and changing a line, with the new file format?

  • Yes, with VS 2005 it is, MSBuild is just a knockoff of Ant. And it only confirms what I'm saying all the time. Even Microsoft gets it, now if only all their evangelists would :)

  • Oh and Jeff - you say nobody said I'm bad for my opinions. Don't you read your own blog? Don't you remember what you post? http://weblogs.asp.net/Jeff/archive/2004/06/30/169962.aspx - it's titled "Developer snobbery is bad for everyone" and it says I'm reeking of developer snobbery.

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