OSNews

"Personally, I don't like the idea of .NET all that much."

I don't like it either. But that doesn't change the fact that Microsoft has the power to force it down developers throats, and it appears that is exactly what they are doing. Most professional programmers don't have the ability to choose what platform they develop on. Hobby OSS programmers can choose whatever tool they want and whatever platform they want. Professional programmers supporting an organization are locked into whatever platform their organization has standardized on. Unfortunately, that is usually Windows. (I feel their pain because I am in that situation. I'm a UNIX guy who learned programming on UNIX but now has no choice except to develop for Windows and learn the MFC library damn well).

"Only because Microsoft will stop supporting their other technologies."

That's exactly what I said in my post. Microsoft will shove .NET down developers throats. They will force organizations to adopt .NET by phasing out other tools.

"Well, if you read the negative remarks about Linux, 60% are based on a complete lack of knowledge on the subect..."

The reverse is just as true, if not more so. The vast majority of people who flame people for saying something bad about Linux are completely clueless about Linux. Like I said, that's one reason I think most of them are probably hacker wannabes with giant teenage egos to fill. They think because they know a little bit about UNIX, they are smarter than any Windows weenie and they sare going to prove it. In the end all they end up proving is how little they know about IT in general much less the system they are trying to defend.

"I used to hate Linux. My friend has used it since Linus sent out his first post regarding Linux. As of the first release of Slackware, he has never run Windows since."

I used to love Linux. I used it for almost everything. But the Linux "counter-culture" (which is a relatively recent phenomena in the history of Linux) turned me off to it. People like RMS for example, give Linux the image of a radical group of social software extremests. That turned me off to Linux. Then I discovered FreeBSD and found it was technically superior to Linux and didn't have the Linux counter-culture "Free software for everyone, make Microsoft illegel" attitude that I hated about the "Linux movement".

"Linux biggest supporters and advocates are NOT corporations, but rather those people who like free software (both in the beer and in the speech senses)."

That's all well and good. But advocates do not a successful platform make. Advocates do not attract commercial developers. Large user bases attract software developers. Red Hat doesn't run advertisements in industry trade publications to attract advocates. They run them to attract buyers and corporations. The ultimate success of a platform such as Linux will depend on how widely it is deployed in corporate installations. It will not depend on how many radical advocates it has.

"Forgive me if I'm wrong, but last I looked hair loss had absolutely nothing to do with mental maturity, competance or intelligence."

Stress does have something to do with hair loss. And now you are twising my words. I never said that Linus was incompetant or lacked intelligence. Only that he sometimes has a childish temper (he needs to hire a PR guy since that is obviously NOT his field). Bill Gates has temper problems of his own, but he does a better job of not displaying them in public than Linus does.

"Besides, Bill Gates is as bald as a baloon (like Steve Ballmer), Bill just has hair plugs. You would know that if you ever talked to him in person."

Bill Gates is not bald! LOL They only way to explain why his hair is so messy is that it is his natural hair. Because why would anyone want their hair to look like that unless they didn't have another choice because that is what nature gave them? :p If he's using hair plugs, he could do a far better job than what he is doing. :p