[AccessD] And this just in...

Hi Doug:

We each seem to be working in different areas of the computer world. My initial introduction to computers was through the mainframes and minis...CMS and VMS. I worked on high-end graphic/mapping and that was Intergraph and ArcInfo packages... From then all all desktops were Windows but because I worked on contract for government all the backends were Unix and then Linux. This region is an Oracle shop and every server was Unix or Linux. When I worked doing franchises and financial industry work; the FE may have been Windows but the BEs were all Linux... 

The universities here do not teach Windows. They teach C, C++, web designing, Java and anything Linux. Cost cutting has encouraged most major educational facilities to innovate and licences costs are an easy place to cut. All the local government's research facilities use Linux...that does not mean that they do not have a Windows machine or two but the main systems are Linux or QNX. There are many small Startups here that are building all sorts of hardware solutions and they all use Linux...this is because Linux has a very small foot-print and no licencing issues...then there are all the websites that use Linux unless they have received a sizable cut in licencing fees from MS.

I can not say that Microsoft has not been very good to me for development work but the trends in the corporate industry are no favouring Microsoft any more. That is not saying MS is out but instead of being "the OS" it is just another system and has to share with iOS and Linux. Linux, until recently, has not had any easy desktops but that has definitely changed. Maybe Linux has been around for twenty years but they have only been a real contender, on the desktop, for less than five years. Taking, everything in context, given no advertising and considering every install is just word of mouth, its growth has been surprising. 

Windows is not a bad product but neither is Linux and until you have tried it you can not knock it. 

Aside: The one product that kept me tied to Windows was Access but MS seems bound and determined to render the product impudent, so any idiot can use it...

The new Linux desktops are easy to install, easy to maintain, has every application you will need and then some and when Linux is installed in an office, with younger staff members, they sit down and just get it...for example; Ubuntu Linux comes with Libra Office preinstalled, easily connects to all the servers and printers...it is all ready to go...right off the DVD or internet. (A lot of us old guys are scared stiff of Linux but the younger generation has no such (Microsoft induced?) phobias.)
    
In summary, all predictions say, if you are continuing to stay and advance your career, in the computer industry, being bilingual or multilingual is what new-age developers have to be.

Jim        

----- Original Message -----
From: "Doug Steele" <dbdoug at gmail.com>
To: "Access Developers discussion and problem solving" <accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
Sent: Saturday, 1 March, 2014 7:49:03 PM
Subject: Re: [AccessD] And this just in...

I'm just throwing this out as an observation, but in my 20+ years of
computing, I've never actually encountered a computer running Unix/Linux
(other than during the one day course I took on it about 15 years ago :) ).

The one (world class) research lab I know about uses Macs.

The multinational company I've done Access dbs for is Microsoft all the way.

The mining/engineering company I worked for went from IBM System 3 to
Windows. The requirements they have for Excel processing and Autocad make
Windows compulsory.  If you have Windows requirements like they do, going
to Linux/Wine just makes one more expensive layer; the cost for support
personnel is probably an order of magnitude higher than the savings on
software.

Your mileage obviously varies!

Doug