Ok, I’m going to kick off this post with something controversial. I like Microsoft! Yup, that’s right, I’m a Microsoft fan. I enjoy using their products like Visual Studio, Windows 7, the live writer tool I’m using to write this.
Having said that, I also really enjoying using Linux, I use around five different distros (Debian, Fedora, Mint, Gentoo and Ubuntu at the moment.) I enjoy playing with them, developing on them and generally learning a great deal about computer programming the whole time using them.
And I can do that on Windows too. What I don’t get, is why is there such what seems like hatred between the camps? I’m not going to apologise for using a tool that makes my life easier, why should I? I got this at work a few days back, where I use Kate for editing my source code. (I develop C++ in Unix), and got a huge backlash from a couple of developers. The usual comments like “real developers use vi”. So you’re saying that I’m not a proper developer because I don’t use the “right” editor? Get lost! Or “Emacs? yuck!!”
It’s a programmer’s choice as to what tool to use for what purpose. We have enough to think about, with what we’re writing without getting dragged in to an editor war or an operating system war! I use different Operating Systems depending on what I want to do, and I’m not going to apologise for that either.
There seems to be a lot of energy wasted on the internet with using the “correct” programming language or the correct editor. Who cares at the end of the day? Most of it is good natured I’ll grant you that, and I do enjoy pitching in with “Visual Basic 3.0 is simply the best language out there…” which earns a giggle. But some people really do need to relax about who uses what. It’s their personal preference at the end of the day.
A great deal of coders, (I include myself in this statement) have been made to feel very small because they’re perceived as not good enough coders because they use the wrong editor/make tool/language. And it really needs to stop. There’s enough hatred in the world, and there are far bigger things we need to worry about as developers rather than what editor we use!
Sorry for the rant…
