[aespinoza]

I read it, and I upvoted. I did that because I believe he has interesting points in it.

People commenting here are just focusing on certain points of the article and not the whole sentiment.

What the author is saying is that even though he likes linux a lot, he is more productive in windows. I can see that happening. Fixing things in Linux is difficult, specially coming from a Windows world.

[rbanffy]

I re-read it and it still looks like a rant from an uninformed person. He spent a month with Linux and didn't notice NetBeans or Eclipse? Is there ANY programmer on Earth that doesn't know those? He claims Windows enjoys better "hardware, software, IT guys" because it's more popular. Linux is only unpopular in PCs. In every other segment it trounces its competition.

And maybe you have a point about fixing things. On Windows, people just reinstall or download a freeware tool that cleans up some specific mess and may (or may not) make things better. But the truth is it's much harder to break stuff on Linux than it is on Windows. And on Linux, you may be tempted to actually find out what the problem was (because you are able to) and fix it, which is much harder than just reinstalling the thing.

Except for the fact that, after you do a clean install, you'll have to download missing drivers, service packs, run Windows Update a couple times and reboot the machine each and every time something major gets updated, which happens a good couple times in this process). Last time I tried, reinstalling a Windows machine from scratch took me a day.

Reinstalling my Ubuntu box takes, usually, less than an hour.

[bunderbunder]

> He spent a month with Linux and didn't notice NetBeans or Eclipse?

I grew up on Linux. It was my primary desktop OS for many years. A few years ago, though, I found myself needing to move for personal reasons, and the best job offer I could get in short order was a Windows development one. I very quickly switched platforms for all my hobby projects. Visual Studio really is that good.

I can see the opposite opinion, too, of course. At least to the extent that other people prefer NetBeans or Eclipse, and that I'm not some sort of blind VS fanboy who thinks the only reason someone could have a different preference from me is because they're uninformed or unintelligent. It's not an opinion that I hold, but it's an opinion held by others I know and they're smart people so I trust it's for reasons that are every bit as valid to them as my reasons are to me. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that they also like different ice cream flavors from me, too. They might even have tasted my favorite flavor, only to find it wasn't to their liking.

[2muchcoffeeman]

Does not matter how popular Linux is in other segments. That is not going to help things on my desktop. Unpopularity is a valid argument in this context.

[rbanffy]

He claims to be a developer (something hard to believe for all he knows seems to be Visual Studio). He's not a law student.

If you think Windows is popular, go to any respectable compsi department and look around. Go to any conference not sponsored by Microsoft. Go to any place where someone is pushing the envelope. You'll find plenty Linux, plenty OSX and a couple Windows machines.