O'Reilly Network: More on Your Windows by Day, Linux by Night Article

Published on O'Reilly (http://www.oreilly.com/)
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/ask_tim/2000/winfun_0800.html
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Date: August 2000
Subject: More on Your Windows by Day, Linux by Night Article
From: Larry Buldak

Hey Tim,

As I look at my bookshelf on my computer desk, I find eight O'Reilly books on Linux, none on Windows. My Win98 library has been relegated to the knee-level shelf with only 3 Win98 books left. The rest are thrown out! You're right in that many of us who earn a living programming use some variation of MS Windows, mostly because our clients/employers (I'm a consultant) have it installed. There isn't a choice! At home, and you're right again, my system is a duel-boot since my wife and daughter are both familiar and comfortable with Win98 and don't want to learn Linux.

But the real issue here is one of choice. When I have one, I use Caldera's Linux 2.4. Please note that any signatures from me have a Linux footprint (or should that be a penguin footprint?).

Having made my living from IBM mainframe stuff for the past 30 years (yes, I know what 9-edge face down means), I believe that my remaining future lies in Linux and Java, not with Bill Gates and his crashing software that we all experience daily. Certainly this is IBM's thrust (from what I'm reading).

Yeah, we use Windows, but not out of choice. Even my Java course has a CD that forces me to use Windows, but my C++ and Java programs are written and run on my Linux side without the "black window of death."

IMHO,

Larry Buldak
An O'Reilly fan

Larry, thanks for your comments.

Let me say, though, that I don't disagree at all with your point that Linux (and UNIX) are more fun. The point of my Windows by Day, Linux by Night article was that, for whatever reason, many of us use Windows98 (or 2000, or 95) at least some of the time, and that when we're there, we don't make the most of it. Just because it's not your system of choice doesn't mean that you shouldn't learn as much as you can about it. Learn more, get your job done more quickly, and get back to Linux! I just wanted to share my experience, that having learned Windows 95 and 98 to help out on a book that wasn't getting done, I found myself immensely more productive when I used it. And I started looking around and seeing even experienced hackers acting like newbies on the platform, because the prevailing meme is that this OS is so lame that there's no reason to bother learning about it.

I believe that whether we like them or not, Microsoft operating systems are in wide use, and the more we teach people who use them to adopt the open source "under the hood" mindset, the better off we all will be. Informed consumers will help keep MS on its toes, and will help them to help themselves even when the operating system as delivered does not.

One of our company taglines has been "helping people get more out of computers," and we try to do that for whatever operating system or language people are using.

Tim

Tim,

...and it's that attitude of yours that keeps us buying O'Reilly books. They are well done, professional, and they reflect the business philosophy that's needed in the rest of the industry. Thanks for your thoughts. I wish Gates was as "open sourced."

Larry Buldak