> On Fri, 2004-03-05 at 19:49, Joseph R. McVerry wrote:
>
> non-proprietary software. All we are doing is talking in circles about
> how A is better than B when we should be talking about how Java is
> better than everything else!
Doesn't talking about how Java is better than everything else fit into the format of A is better than B that you just slammed. ;) I love Java but it is not the end all and be all.
What we should be talking about is how to improve ourselves as developers, which includes expanding our skills not pigeon-holing into Java. The tech industry in the US is projected to be one of the largest growth industries in the next ten years. Not every job will go overseas. In fact, only a small percentage will. Look at manufacturing and farming. More jobs were lost, by far, to productivity gains than to off-shoring. And as far as increased productivity is concerned, that has always helped the US economy not hurt it.
As I see it, open source is merely an efficiency. It will and has created increased productivity. That is good for the economy and for the excellent developers many of whom work on open source to make themselves excellent. It may not be good for the average developer.
Who cares about Microsoft or Java or open-source or proprietary or whatever else you want to toss onto the discussion pile. Tech people on the top of the food chain will always have jobs. I don't expect to see Kent Beck, Martin Fowler or James Gosling on the unemployment line.
To be more specific, open source and outsourcing are not the problems. In fact, there is no problem. If there is a problem it is in creating a value proposition in the business world. Microsoft has done that. Java has done that. Open source has done that. Developers need to do that. You do that by knowing, really knowing all levels and as much about technology as you can. You do that by being able to specialize open source products. You do that by building on top of proprietary and open source products. You do that by abstracting yourself from development and instead work on architecting and designing. You do that by pulling yourself from development and understanding business.
--clayton
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