dashing_cavalier's Journal: About me...

I'm a Microsoft developer who has finally "seen the light". For me, the light bulb turned on last year after really trying to comprehend Microsoft's licensing and the direction they seem to be headed (always seemed to be headed?) That and after receiving the umteenth report of a "critical Windows flaw" from their security bulletin...

So, after years of hearing about Linux I finally downloaded Mandrake Linux for an old Pentium box I had and tried it out. I was amazed at how easily it installed on my old hardware, and just *worked*! It's running rock solid now, and my college UNIX knowlege is finally paying off for me. I would consider myself an advanced newbie (know enough to be dangerous) but I'm learning fast. I'll probably dedicate a more up-to-date workstation for the latest Mandrake release soon and try to use it for my desktop, supplanting WinXP Pro.

I'm also starting to get the Open Source bug. Who'd have thought there's so much *good*, *free* software available? The quality I've seen of open source software in most cases seems to equal or surpass that of most commercial software (especially from *ahem* that company in Redmond...) I plan to contribute some tools I'm working on at some point to open source. When that happens I'll post to my journal so check back.

One thing I think that M$FT has done right is they've always spoiled their developers. I've found that it's very easy to get up to speed on their technology and finding documentation is not difficult. Their .NET technology is pretty good IMO (the actual framework & languages, not their marketing BS and world domination bent). I like their idea of coding for the framework and not the OS. That's one reason why I'm rooting for Mono to succeed. I guess time will tell how far M$FT lets Mono progress, but right now it looks promising.

Cheers,
Alan