> I can't believe you're advising this Dave! First of all, > that's a lot of "if's". Second, what is the problem with > knowing what your options are?
Any competent programmer should be able to evaluate that tiny bit of conditional logic. And knowing what your options are doesn't require that you be an expert on all of them. For example, as a CF programmer, I deploy applications on Windows, Linux and Solaris. However, I don't have to be a competent system administrator on any of those platforms, to be a competent developer. I happen to be more familiar with Windows, so I use that for the majority of my own development. I haven't found any platform to be so clearly superior to warrant abandoning the other platforms, and neither have our clients. > Obviously, someone who is looking for a "Linux Book" is > interested in taking the time to learn something new. Why are > you advising them that their best bet is to stick with Windows? Again, yes, you are misinterpreting my response. You are almost certainly aware that learning another platform to a minimal degree of competency requires a significant investment of time. Unless you want to learn how to administer servers, it may make sense to invest your time in other things. There aren't enough hours in the day to learn everything that's interesting or useful. You have to pick your battles. > I can already hear your reply: "That's not necessarily what I > was saying", but it is. Read between the ambiguity in the > above message and you'll hear "It's okay to use windows > because that's all you know." There's no need to read between anything. There's no ambiguity. What I wrote was pretty simple, despite its conditional logic. And, yes, it's ok to use Windows because that's all you know, if you're a CF programmer. I submit to you that, if you were to perform a cost-benefit analysis, most CF programmers would find many other things more valuable than learning Linux - learning SQL better would be a good start. Or maybe Flex 2. Or Java. Or AJAX, etc. > That's a horrible philosophy! Rather, do everything you can > to learn what your options are. At least then you'll know > enough to make an informed decision about what's best for > your company and your purposes. DO NOT simply use something > because that's all you know... If you're a WEB PROGRAMMER, as opposed to a SERVER ADMINISTRATOR or ENTERPRISE ARCHITECT or GUY IN CHARGE OF BUYING COMPUTERS, why in the hell would you be making server infrastructure choices like that? What is so hard to understand about this? And if you are something else, in addition to being a web programmer, you'd be a fool if you ignored existing investments in labor and infrastructure - the value of "all you know" - to switch to Linux just because "it's better". It has to be better enough to justify throwing away those investments. In a lot of cases, it just isn't that much better. Dave Watts, CTO, Fig Leaf Software http://www.figleaf.com/ Fig Leaf Software provides the highest caliber vendor-authorized instruction at our training centers in Washington DC, Atlanta, Chicago, Baltimore, Northern Virginia, or on-site at your location. Visit http://training.figleaf.com/ for more information! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Introducing the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update. 80 pages of hard-hitting, up-to-date ColdFusion information by your peers, delivered to your door four times a year. http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:258642 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
