2 ms·
I actually argued against the Windowsification of all of the classes in my college and pushed back at every opportunity. I don't think it makes sense for a coll
by X-Istence 14y ago
I actually argued against the Windowsification of all of the classes in my college and pushed back at every opportunity. I don't think it makes sense for a college that is teaching computer science to dedicate all of their resources and tools on Windows only software. C++ is used outside of Microsoft Visual Studio, and the code that works in VS will most likely not even compile due to not being standards compliant (Although VS2010 has gotten MUCH better at it than older versions).
Many of my teachers eventually would relent and realise that yes I was right. TCP/IP is one of the classes I took in which Windows was required. TCP/IP is a network protocol, it is available in all major OS's. I turned in entire assignments with a simple note "Windows required, don't have Windows." Luckily I didn't end up getting docked points because they realised I already knew all of the information in the course.
One thing that was really nice, and I am surprised none of the teachers used it against me was the fact that with MSDNAA I as a student had access to thousands of dollars worth of Microsoft software. You name it I could download a free legal copy of it for use during my tenure at college as a student. Microsoft seems to have that on lock. What better way to get students to play with your platform than to have them use all your tools and software free of charge. Windows 7, Visual Studio, SQL, SharePoint, Exchange and others.
- rbanffy 14y agoI agree that Visual Studio is an excellent IDE if you are targeting Windows and that SQL Server is a very good RDBMS, but why would anyone, except for some disgustingly wicked form of auto-flagellation, actually want Exchange and SharePoint?
- X-Istence 14y agoBecause familiarising yourself with software that costs thousands of dollars for free is kind of fun? The fact that I have at least part of the knowledge makes me more valuable for an employer.
- rbanffy 14y agoThe real question is why would you want to be valuable to someone who uses Exchange and Sharepoint ;-)
- mark_integerdsv 14y agoUuhm... Not to be overly flippant but me, my wife and my two daughters as well as my bootstrapped startup are supported by my work for a multinational financial organization. The technologies you mention essentially run this organization from an information delivery aspect.
- rbanffy 14y agoI understand and I'm sorry if I came across as insensitive - I was half-joking. My own experience with these technologies is not favorable. Every year or so the company I work for experiences a day long mail outage. My wife has lost about a month of work because Sharepoint died and no backup could bring it back to life. And yes, both installs are maintained by people with plenty MC* certifications and, in both cases, the reasons for using the software were not tech-driven. I hope you have better experiences.
- mark_integerdsv 14y agoIt does not follow that since no workable backup strategy was in place that Sharepoint is rubbish. Look: I'm not singing the praises of these softwares, it's big clunky enterprise stuff and it is boooring... None the less: it's running some pretty important processes that combined run a large portion of the worlds I.T.