Over as
OSNews.com they linked to my article on the PDC. OSNews.com is one of
my favorite sites but it tends to have more than its fair share of "Wannabes".
That is, developers who are probably pretty good but exceed their reach by
making software development judges beyond their experience.
Linux users in particular fall prey to this. But it's not that specific to a
platform. What amazes me is how Linux/Apple advocates try to put down what
Microsoft is trying to do with Longhorn because other concepts have been tried
or implemented on other platforms. Who the hell cares? I got my start on OS/2.
OS/2 introduced all kinds of cool stuff that later appeared in BeOS, Linux,
MacOS, etc. But so what? The point is that Longhorn is going to have cool
stuff.
I mean, heck, a lot of the visual stuff seen in Avalon's demos we do today
with WindowFX. Right now. Shadows, morphing windows, transitions, you name it.
If you have an ATI or nVidia card you can do that right now with WindowFX.
Does that make Avalon any less cool in my opinion? No. Will it make
WindowFX less useful in 2006? Absolutely if we sit on our asses for 3 years not
doing anything. Each new version of Windows provides no opportunities.
Developers who sit on their laurels get creamed in the long term -- which is how
it should be.
On particular troll writes:
It appears that the author is disgruntled by the fact that he will find it
harder to push his hype-ware/snake-oil to the clueless end users. It would
be like Symantec complaining that because Windows XP SP2 will include an
enhanced firewall, the can no longer justify charging the exorbinant amount
they do now.
Stop complaining and look for a new market. That is the ONE problem with
alot of Windows developers, instead of looking at developing applications
that benefit they user, they're more concerned with creating tweakers and
so-called "optimisers" to work around Windows deficiencies that they know
will be fixed in the next release.
When this next release rolls around the corner we have whiners like Draginol
complain that his snake-oil can now no longer "hook" into an API. Cry me a
river Draginol and look for a new market
There are so many things wrong with this statement that it's hard to begin.
First, his analogy is completely wrong. It would not be like Symantec
complaining because SP2 includes a firewall. Instead, it would be like
Microsoft making SP2 not only NOT include a firewall but making it impossible
for anyone to create a firewall. I think people would definitely object to that,
don't you think?
The second paragraph is a self-contradiction. "Instead of developing things
that benefit the user they make things that work around Windows deficiencies."
Well how does that not help the user? Yes, that's what
Object Desktop does -- it extends
Windows so that it has new features that enable users to do a lot more with it
and do it their own way. How is that not benfitting the users?
One might argue that the entire reason Linux has any significant following at
all is because "snake oil" people like myself charging an "exorbinant" amount
($20 is apparently a lot of money if you're a semi-literate college student)
haven't been able to write software that gets around Windows deficiencies fast
enough.
That's one of the advantages of Open Source. On Windows, it's closed source
but historically developers have been able to add their own features to the base
OS using API hooks. We're not talking sub-classing an existing thing on a per
program basis here, we're talking about being able to do wholesale change.
The only ones who will suffer will be users. Developers can always write drivers
that reintroduce a missing feature but the average freeware or shareware
developer won't know how to do that.
And people LIKE being able to control how Windows functions for them.
WinCustomize.com gets over 2 million unique visitors per month. And there are
other sites of similar popularity.
Not everyone is comfortable with the idea that one big company, be it Apple or
IBM or Microsoft should decide exactly how you should use your computer.