quote:
Originally posted by LCC:
Someday the monster will die. I am not too old to wait and cheer the return of sanity when that happens. I will NEVER EVER PROGRAM IN WINDOWS. It just feeds the beast when programs use it. If that means I write no programs, as has been the case since my Amiga died, then so be it....
To the younger generation, things CHANGE. Slowly but surely time grinds down even the most powerful, in a free society. Look at IBM and the story of mainframes as an example. I do not know what their market share is now, but the Last time I looked, they sold less than 20% of the world's computers. Well, at one time they sold 85%, having driven dozens of others out of the market, including FAR FAR better products. Just as an example, my university used the best timesharing machine ever built, the Xerox Sigma IX. Fifteen YEARS after Xerox threw in the towel, there were STILL a dozen of them being used by devoted owners who desperately cannibalized dead machines and improvised replacement parts to keep them running. The CPV operating system Xerox developed was ported IIRC to a Honeywell machine and named CP VI to attract former Sigma owners. Of course desktops killed the mainframe concept, but something similar will happen to them as well - handhelds and visors.....
Unfortunately, I am not of the younger generation either, but I do develop for Windows, since you have to develop software that people are going to buy. I agree that handhelds and such are going to be a part of the future, but I would not advise waiting for the world to return to what it once was.
The reason for Windows "bloat" is that it provides people with functionality that they want. (I'm talking about the mainstream, not throw-back geeks like us.
) What you're going to see is more "bloat", not less. .NET is going to really shake things up. I'm just starting to see what can be done using XML as a communication medium. I've just managed to drag myself out of a procedural mindset and got used to event-driven software, and they've moved the marker again. Software technology is evolving at an unbelievable rate. I may not like it, but I have to adapt or my family doesn't eat.