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by Mithaldu 4378 days ago
> traditional Windows devs are typically only good at Windows and get lost very quickly outside of their comfort zones, which is not true for Linux devs

Strongly disagree. I've watched scores of Linux-only developers try to do things on windows machines, stumble over small things, and then proceed to blame windows instead of realizing they simply lack experience.
3 comments
reitanqild 4378 days ago
Long time user of both nix and Windows here:

At least around here it seems anyone can be a Windows dev/admin while becoming a *nix admin often takes some dedication.

And to this day the amount of busywork that Windows admins and devs find acceptable still amuses me and not in a good way.

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yardie 4378 days ago
Are you sure about that? Is it that since Windows compromises 90% of desktop its reasonable to assume that a lot of people have put in 1000s of hours of using, developing, and administering it.

As a counterexample. My Linux servers, when presented with 4 NICs and multiple VLANs, doesn't know what to do with them. I had to edit the iptable. Something that I still haven't needed to do to any of our Windows server.

Different strokes for different folks.

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reitanqild 4378 days ago
Late reply, but yes I am reasonably sure.

A big part of one of my previous jobs was setting up Windows and Linux servers and linux workstations. The severs invariably had 4 nics.

I never, ever had to adjust iptables on any if them. Setting them up is mostly a breeze except for application specific stuff ($$$ stuff, not open source).

I don't know what distro and hardware you used though.

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lucisferre 4378 days ago
I'm not sure if he's referring to IT and admin tasks on the OS or simply experience with other programming languages and paradigms.
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manoelito 4378 days ago
i agree. windows devs are lazy in their majority do not like to think outside the box and often when we say "there is a project on github that can help you" guys just respond you will use an open source solution for this project?

I do not understand why they can not analyze a few lines of code and insert them into your projects to optimize your ideas.

Lastly I'm working on a MS Windows team and the time squeeze, I always turn to something in windows would be impossible to do with only 1 line. Example: parse a PDF with pdftotext, read the contents and drive to another file already positioned with the help of Perl, Python or even a simple grep.

I do not know the MS ecosystem deeply and am still getting used. Particularly consider VS a great tool. The problem with using a Git server is very serious and gets to be frustrating but nothing that you can not do otherwise.

The MS has lately shown to follow a path of opening many of their tools following an open source model and I see it as a sign to encourage the use of various technologies (open source or not) to solve a problem. Situation which MS devs are not accustomed

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