The whole direction Microsoft is taking with Windows 8 and Visual Studio 11 seems kinda disturbing.
Microsoft Pulling Free Development Tools for Windows 8 Desktop Apps
21–30 of 81 posts
Re: Microsoft Pulling Free Development Tools for Windows 8 Desktop Apps
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well said. However, we can go to back the open platforms, like Android.
Honest question: how open is Android? I mean, when you consider Play. Can you write/submit an end-user programming app like Scratch? I know we can always dev-unlock the device and install anything we want, but what about the kid with an Android tablet who wants to start hacking? I'm worried about this move to walled gardens on all the platforms. The desktop is one of the last bastions of openness, but its not really…
Android isn't google play. You can install any apk files you want onto your android device. No hacking or rooting or jail breaking required.
Re: Microsoft Pulling Free Development Tools for Windows 8 Desktop Apps
#23Although I think HTML5 is actually a pretty lousy software stack for application development, I'm becoming more and more sympathetic to the arguments that the evolution of the web is absolutely essential for the survival of free & open computing. It was bad enough that their mobile platforms are so locked down, but with Apple and Microsoft now turning the screws ever tighter on their previously open desktop platforms…
> Remember, once a freedom is relinquished it can be very difficult to get it back. No, it's not. I'm a huge, huge MS fanboi. I've used WP7 since it launched, I've been using Windows full time for quite a few years now and love it, I'm a huge .NET fan, etc. But about two weeks ago, I switched back to using Linux full-time. I only plan on using Windows in VMs for running software I'm reversing; everything else will be…
About your productivity levels, don't worry about it because in the end you'll end up being much more productive.
The one thing you must do is to embrace the Unix way of doing things. Learn the basic command-line tools and use them daily. Learn to use Emacs, because the same shortcuts are available in the shell.
This book is great btw: Unix Power Tools (http://amzn.to/Klexhf)
Another thing you have to realize is that Unix was built for polyglots. Many Windows developers usually stay within the walls of .NET, but on Unix that's a mistake. Learn Java, learn a good scripting language (I recommend Ruby because it is great for scripting, has a thriving community and can also run on top of the JVM), learn C along with the POSIX APIs.
Eclipse or IntelliJ IDEA are good substitutes for Visual Studio, however I work with Emacs, because in dynamic languages the APIs and workflow are optimized for non-IDE usage and an IDE just stays in my way. I still use an IDE for Java, but that's only because in Java I can't drop to a REPL.
Also, Linux is great for your desktop, but only if you have hardware that's compatible with it. So be careful when picking hardware and do some reading first, otherwise it will ruin your mood. OS X is also an option btw, but I wouldn't make long-term commitments to this platform because Apple is even worse than Microsoft in some regards.
Re: Microsoft Pulling Free Development Tools for Windows 8 Desktop Apps
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Remember, once a freedom is relinquished it can be very difficult to get it back. No, it's not. I'm a huge, huge MS fanboi. I've used WP7 since it launched, I've been using Windows full time for quite a few years now and love it, I'm a huge .NET fan, etc. But about two weeks ago, I switched back to using Linux full-time. I only plan on using Windows in VMs for running software I'm reversing; everything else will be…
About your productivity levels, don't worry about it because in the end you'll end up being much more productive. The one thing you must do is to embrace the Unix way of doing things. Learn the basic command-line tools and use them daily. Learn to use Emacs, because the same shortcuts are available in the shell. This book is great btw: Unix Power Tools ( http://amzn.to/Klexhf ) Another thing you have to realize is th…
I've been using Linux since 1999, ran it full time for many years. However, my productivity is still diminished, primarily due to the lack of decent reversing tools. IDA 6 is ok on Linux, but that's about where it ends. Eventually I'll build my tools up again, but it's a long climb.
Re: Microsoft Pulling Free Development Tools for Windows 8 Desktop Apps
#25+ Freelancer devs will be 'encouraged' to develop for Win 8, an argument can be made this will positively impact Win 8 sells, albeit it will be a difficult argument - Open source development on Windows will take a hit - Freelancers will either stick with older and less effective tools, or will choose to abandon Desktop - Users will tend to get less new software for their Windows 7 +/- Will not affect big corporations…
Actually, for freelancers it is more accessible and less risk to use illegal copies than for companies. Mostly, freelancers are producing sources for the concrete client, they aren't selling/shipping the binaries directly, so no one cares whether they used Notepad++ or Visual Studio.
Re: Microsoft Pulling Free Development Tools for Windows 8 Desktop Apps
#26Re: Microsoft Pulling Free Development Tools for Windows 8 Desktop Apps
#27This doesn't really seem like news to me. I've never met anybody doing real development in the .NET world who didn't have a paid copy of VS.NET.
With BizSpark or similar, you're looking at something like $400 total to get as many copies of VS.NET as you need for your entire team. And all the other dev tools everybody needs. And Windows licenses for all their boxes. And Office. And everything else Microsoft makes.
So even assuming a team size of one, it's still closer to free than it is to a day's worth of your bill rate. Considering how much better the paid version of VS.NET is than the "Express" version, it's not even something worth thinking about.
Given that, the fact that the Free version does this or doesn't do that has pretty much zero bearing on the life of a guy writing software on the Microsoft stack.
Re: Microsoft Pulling Free Development Tools for Windows 8 Desktop Apps
#28Although I think HTML5 is actually a pretty lousy software stack for application development, I'm becoming more and more sympathetic to the arguments that the evolution of the web is absolutely essential for the survival of free & open computing. It was bad enough that their mobile platforms are so locked down, but with Apple and Microsoft now turning the screws ever tighter on their previously open desktop platforms…
"the web" is just a platform. For some applications it makes sense, for other not so much.
I spend maybe 8 to 12 hours a day in front of some very classic laptops or desktop PCs, and I'm happy with low-latency desktop programs. I don't anticipate this to change.
Maybe the industry sells more mobile devices these days, and that makes it easy to for people to go "all mobile" or "all html5", but a good amount of being actually productive still happens on the old school desktop.
Re: Microsoft Pulling Free Development Tools for Windows 8 Desktop Apps
#29Not great news for XNA hobbyists like myself.
Oh well, I guess I'll just move to Java to create some games. It worked for Notch :)
Re: Microsoft Pulling Free Development Tools for Windows 8 Desktop Apps
#30Although I think HTML5 is actually a pretty lousy software stack for application development, I'm becoming more and more sympathetic to the arguments that the evolution of the web is absolutely essential for the survival of free & open computing. It was bad enough that their mobile platforms are so locked down, but with Apple and Microsoft now turning the screws ever tighter on their previously open desktop platforms…
> the evolution of the web is absolutely essential for the survival of free & open computing.
I don't understand the connection. How many of the web services we use are open source? A native program I buy may be closed source, but it runs on my computer and storage and is updated on my terms. I can even legally crack it if that's what it takes to keep it running (as far as I understand German laws). If I use an open-source OS and an open-source web browser to access a standards-based HTML5 web service, what interesting freedom do I have?
Now, Metro may offer a better deal by encouraging local HTML5 apps. But I still think the Open Web is something that underdog browsers should care about, neither users nor developers.