Linux Software Development.

I came across this article by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols regarding the the fact that Linux needs to do more for programmers and ISV's. He argues that Microsoft tends to do more for ISV's with better tools and resources.

Although I can see exactly where Steven is coming from I do not exactly agree. Now do not get me wrong I am not trying to start an argument but rather pass comment from what I feel is a fair position.

By day I work with the .Net framework and Visual Studio (2008). I can see the point that Steven makes regarding the tools and resources that Microsoft provide but I would argue that they have it quite easy. Microsoft are only targeting their own platform. They produce the OS, an SDK for that OS and a development platform that sits on top of that OS. Their tools while comprehensive are full of utilities to make life easy for developers and for novice coders.

Now take the Linux platform. At present there are over 300 Linux distro's on distrowatch. They may all share the Linux Kernel and there will be a lot of variations of other distro's but there will be a mass of differences between lots of them. Then you take the various languages and tool kits that are available compared to Microsoft's handful. Lastly you consider the difference in development methodology. Microsoft provide a limited set of tools to drive the adoption of their core business (the OS) and to tie people into their platform. Linux and OSS developers do it because they want to a lot of the time. The OSS community has spawned a business market and not, as in Microsoft's case, created a community from a business.

Non paid OSS developers will always choose the tools, languages and utilities they want to develop their software and they should have that right. However, ISV's should not feel that they are not catered for. Qt is a great tool kit that provides a level of abstraction that allows developers to create software that is truly platform independent and not only that provides a great IDE and a very detailed documentation package. Mono, love it or not, also provides a large framework that not only provides easy to use tools and documentation but provides an easy move into Linux development for companies that have previously been involved in Microsoft based development.

I don't think that while Linux is as fragmented as it is one company could stand up and provide for developers as Microsoft does. Instead of the LDN providing more comprehensive documentation and guides it should be the companies that provide the languages and frameworks that sit on top of Linux that should do more to push their capabilities and knowledge.

Microsoft Still Like To Spread FUD!

I just read this article in which Microsoft's training material for a PC selling chain's staff state that Linux apparently limits a PC's

The full details appear to have been posted here.

I find this at first amusing (as the stuff that they state does not work, well, does!) but then I start to get annoyed that they are still trying to convince people using FUD rather than dragging their dated, fat, slow and technically inferior product up to date.

How Microsoft Gets It So Wrong.

This is not a post about how Linux is great and Microsoft is rubbish. Anyone that knows me will know that I base my opinions on what I believe to be technically better. Hence why I switch to Linux a long time ago.

However, by day I hack on .Net which until I get around to getting a new work laptop set up with an image running in Virtual Box means I have to run Windows. I refuse to use the inept Vista and have stayed loyal to XP.

Today I have suffered a second bout of Microsoft's in ability to package software correctly inside a week. I guess unless you have encountered apt, rpm based installs or pacman you don't realise that in fact you don't have to suffer the way Windows software is packaged. Anyhow I digress....

Last Friday I attempted to remove Virtual PC 2007. I had it installed for creating an image for an Indian developer I _had_ to work with for a short period who was not willing to use anything that was not made by Microsoft. I no longer needed it and thought I would uninstall it. The uninstaller hung..... for about 20 minutes before I finally killed it and shut the machine down and thought I will deal with it another time. Indeed I did need to deal with it...... the next time I turned it on in fact as it had wipped my VPN network connections!!

WTF.... How can uninstalling Virtual PC wipe my vpn's. Anyway.... I reinstalled and carried on.

This morning I turn my laptop on before jumping in the shower (I sadly have a structured morning routine!) and came down to find that Windows update has downloaded an update and restarted my machine after installing it. Only it has managed to uninstall my wireless driver!!

WTF ... I know it was working because pre shower I was on my mail. Post Windows Update reboot I have no driver. There is no excuse. I have not got some unusual hardware/software combo. I have a bog standard Atheros card running under XP sp2. Why on earth would some update they are pushing down the wire require it to mess with drivers anyway.

I'm sorry but this shows how technically inept Microsoft are these days. It's a shame for the talent that work there that the company as a whole is turning into an embaressment.

I'm a PC and I __don't__ want Windows!

The Sandcastle Project.

Sandcastle is a project that started life on Codeplex. It's a Microsoft application for generating MSDN documentation from XML comments.

It is Rubbish!

That's not a statement I make blindly but after trying to get it to work (on and off for about a year). All the application does (at a high level) is take the xml documentation output file generated by Visual Studio during a build and create MSDN style documentation (both web based and compiled help file).

This should just be a case of applying a xslt file and job done.

Oh no.... not Sandcastle. Sandcastle takes around 20 minutes to generate the help file for a small utility application. Last time I attemptted to to build documentation for our main application on a build machine that we use (i.e. nothing and no-one else on it used solely for building software) it crashed to to maxing out the Ram (1gb).

There is an interesting article about the current state of the project here. To sum up the article ... the application is not worthy of using in a serious build environment.

If anyone has got it working I would be interested to find out more.