What's wrong with Linux Development
I got the following response from Jerry Pisk regarding my post about MS Developer Support and that got me thinking why I am developing on the MS platforms:
re: MS Developer Support
So a bug known for almost 6 months is not documented (let alone fixed)? You
consider that good support? As for Linux (and open source development in
general) - I personally ran into several issues with the tools I've been using
and once I had to write a fix (which eventually got included in the main code)
and every single other time somebody else already wrote a patch, since people
can actually do that - fix things that bug them. Unlike all the problems with
Vs.Net and .Net framework in general where nobody fixes anything (developers
don't because they can't and Microsoft obviously has its own reasons).
This is my whole problem with the Linux development paradigm. “If you find a problem, you can fix it” is there way of thinking. Well, that's great if you are building a solution that plugs into the Linux kernel or does something fairly deep in the system. I applaud that. I really think that is a great way to get things done for those developers that need access to kernel level code. However, my customers are paying me to solve their business problems. Typically, this involves writing code to automate business processes. My customers do not want to pay me to “fix” someone's Linux tool or fix a problem in the kernel. While at one point in my career, I would have truly enjoyed working in the Linux Kernel and doing C++ types of stuff (BTW, I used to do C/C++ programming and I was very good at pointers and pointer arithmetic), that day is no more. I prefer to work with these higher level environments because that is what paying customers want from me. They want code to solve their business problems yesterday. By working with MS's tools, I have a higher level of productivity that some pieced together environment. Is Linux bad? No. However, at this time, Linux is not the tool for me and it is not a tool that my customers are paying me to work with at this time.
Regarding Jerrry's statement about the issue having been around for 6 months. Well, that's not accurate either. The issue was around for about 2 months, when I called about it. I had a work around that evening with an updated comsvcs.dll a couple of days later that resolved the problem. I was pleased with the support I got from MS on that issue.
Wally