I like Microsoft. Its been very good to me. But this idea of Open Source is just intensely appealing. A handful of months ago I knew virtually nothing about Linux, having for so long been given MS stuff. I took the plunge and now work on Linux almost exclusively. Even my office workstation is now Linux. My net sees me out there and I can see anything on it that I need to see. It is one cool operating system. It doesn't have quite that Microsoft polish "I be da man!" quality on the graphic side, but under the hood it is awesome. The thing comes with a complete development environment including C++, not one, but TWO SQL databases, PHP, the extraordinary Apache HTTP server, and also a ton of graphic/text processing applications like the GIMP suite, Open Office (which rivals MS Office a bit) and tons of other great stuff. The free languages are what intrigue me. I actually spent a lot of good money to buy MS SQL Server, Visual C++ etc. With Linux, I just dug in. It was all there. Programming in C++ will transfer fairly quickly to PHP. So I didn't have to start from scratch. I did some ASP stuff at home and found I actually like PHP better than ASP. I now have a growing database-driven family website that I wrote from scratch - all absolutely for free! I just downloaded the Linux images, burned them to CD, installed the thing and VEEOLA! I'm a happy camper. You just can't do that with Microsoft stuff. So I am a BIG fan of Open Source.
I think Microsoft has inadequately responded to the Open Source phenomenon because in the past Open Source quality consistently left a lot to be desired. That has changed and Microsoft had better take note of it. |
