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I think JoeAltmaier’s dev experience is different because he’s an embedded developer. The embedded ecosystem is a disaster area. Proprietary forks of Eclipse, f

by Decade 10y ago

I think JoeAltmaier’s dev experience is different because he’s an embedded developer. The embedded ecosystem is a disaster area. Proprietary forks of Eclipse, fragile build systems with closed-source modules, strange interfaces that don’t necessarily follow the USB specification properly, and drivers and documentation only for Windows. I guess he’s also actively hostile to Linux for some reason. Mounting SD cards and USB drives is one thing that Linux is so much better at than Windows, where every USB drive needs its own permanent entries in the Registry. Except when the drive is hosting a modern Microsoft filesystem with its armada of active patents, but then you get a different bad experience than JoeAltmaier was describing.

JoeAltmaier 10y ago
Thanks for the insight - you are largely right. I'm critical of Linux because I have wide experience on a variety of OS development environment over a number of releases. I've ported Linux kernel code and Windows network stack components; written desktop, embedded and mobile Windows, Linux and other more exotic OS drivers. I've seen what is available, what level of support for OS/kernel development exists. And I've formed strong opinions. My current distaste derives from the fragile Ubuntu 14.04 auto-mount system that can get out of sync between the kernel mounts and the desktop representation. Put USB drives in and out too fast, and the desktop can show drives that are gone; can miss drives that are mounted; can even on occasion leave files in device folders that mask the mounted device so you copy Gbs of deployment data and it all goes into a file instead of on the media. So I've earned every paper cut. They're not imaginary; I'm not so much 'actively hostile' as battle-weary.
- the_af 10y ago
  Just to be clear, I didn't mean to discredit anything you said. I'm sure your papercuts aren't imaginary! And of course, I know nothing of embedded development, so I trust you're right in that space. I was just pointing out that my experience (in a different problem space, admittedly!) is the exact opposite: I find Linux way better and more comfortable to work with than Windows.
- Decade 10y ago
  OK, that’s fair. I don’t trust the Ubuntu automount system (in general, I don’t trust GUIs that can go out of sync with the underlying system, and I always have a terminal open), and I don’t plug and unplug drives quickly.

by Decade 10y ago

JoeAltmaier 10y ago

Thanks for the insight - you are largely right. I'm critical of Linux because I have wide experience on a variety of OS development environment over a number of releases. I've ported Linux kernel code and Windows network stack components; written desktop, embedded and mobile Windows, Linux and other more exotic OS drivers. I've seen what is available, what level of support for OS/kernel development exists. And I've formed strong opinions. My current distaste derives from the fragile Ubuntu 14.04 auto-mount system that can get out of sync between the kernel mounts and the desktop representation. Put USB drives in and out too fast, and the desktop can show drives that are gone; can miss drives that are mounted; can even on occasion leave files in device folders that mask the mounted device so you copy Gbs of deployment data and it all goes into a file instead of on the media. So I've earned every paper cut. They're not imaginary; I'm not so much 'actively hostile' as battle-weary.

the_af 10y ago
Just to be clear, I didn't mean to discredit anything you said. I'm sure your papercuts aren't imaginary! And of course, I know nothing of embedded development, so I trust you're right in that space. I was just pointing out that my experience (in a different problem space, admittedly!) is the exact opposite: I find Linux way better and more comfortable to work with than Windows.
Decade 10y ago
OK, that’s fair. I don’t trust the Ubuntu automount system (in general, I don’t trust GUIs that can go out of sync with the underlying system, and I always have a terminal open), and I don’t plug and unplug drives quickly.