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It is hard to believe that the majority of web developers are on the Mac since there are so many more ASP.NET jobs posts than Django or ROR jobs - at least here

by cfn 14y ago

It is hard to believe that the majority of web developers are on the Mac since there are so many more ASP.NET jobs posts than Django or ROR jobs - at least here in the UK. Having said that the main reason I chose Microsoft as the platform for my products was their commitment to backwards compatibility and the It Just Works policy. As an example, I have an Itanium server running Windows and my applications developed on x86 just work there, maybe not optimally but they do. I believe the same was true of Alpha machines. Windows 8 partly does away with this since the ARM version does not support Win32 applications. Assuming that ARM is the winner in the tablet arena, any tablet application will have to be built from scratch which poses an interesting dilemma: Which platform should I choose for tablet development? The iPad, Android or Windows? At this moment Windows is the worst choice because it is not ready, there are no devices in the market and, what could be the reason to wait for it, my applications will not "Just Work". Microsoft does not have a developer's problem but the times ahead are pretty rocky for anyone with a large investment in the platform.

tptacek 14y ago
Just for whatever it's worth: the majority of ASP.NET job listings are probably for line-of-business apps at non-technology companies. Now, it's worth knowing that line-of-business dev jobs probably constitute a gigantic chunk, maybe the majority, of all programming jobs in the industry. So it's not nothing that those jobs are dominated by ASP.NET and J2EE. But to Marco's point, line-of-business developers don't have a great track record of marketing applications directly to consumers. "Enterprise software" has picked up its connotations for a reason.
- marshray 14y ago
  This is absolutely right. Techies often forget that for most of the history of computing approximately 90% of all software development has been making TPS reports, business logic, and data entry screens for database backends. However, a lot of those folks who do J2EE and Dotnet during the day will have fun tinkering at night. So I predict there will be no shortage of amateurish and clunky apps for Metro platforms.
- cfn 14y ago
  "line-of-business developers don't have a great track record of marketing applications directly to consumers" This sounds like hearsay to me. If a gigantic chunk of the developers are working on ASP.NET and J2EE I would be surprised if they did not transfer those skills to their own business when they open one. Stackoverflow is one such case to give an example. So in my opinion, Marco's premise is wrong even though it may be correct within his circle.

by cfn 14y ago

tptacek 14y ago

Just for whatever it's worth: the majority of ASP.NET job listings are probably for line-of-business apps at non-technology companies. Now, it's worth knowing that line-of-business dev jobs probably constitute a gigantic chunk, maybe the majority, of all programming jobs in the industry. So it's not nothing that those jobs are dominated by ASP.NET and J2EE. But to Marco's point, line-of-business developers don't have a great track record of marketing applications directly to consumers. "Enterprise software" has picked up its connotations for a reason.

marshray 14y ago
This is absolutely right. Techies often forget that for most of the history of computing approximately 90% of all software development has been making TPS reports, business logic, and data entry screens for database backends. However, a lot of those folks who do J2EE and Dotnet during the day will have fun tinkering at night. So I predict there will be no shortage of amateurish and clunky apps for Metro platforms.
cfn 14y ago
"line-of-business developers don't have a great track record of marketing applications directly to consumers" This sounds like hearsay to me. If a gigantic chunk of the developers are working on ASP.NET and J2EE I would be surprised if they did not transfer those skills to their own business when they open one. Stackoverflow is one such case to give an example. So in my opinion, Marco's premise is wrong even though it may be correct within his circle.