Please keep this thread on-topic.
I thought some people here would be excited about Microsoft jumping on the
Python wagon, and providing what might eventually become the best
Python IDE around! Take a look at the latest
TIOBE programming language popularity index. (You'll notice that the headline for March is that Microsoft's C# is catching up to C++, but that's a separate story.) I
once expressed the possibility that Microsoft gave
PHP a boost a while ago by including it in their
Web Platform Installer - I think they can now do the same thing for
(Iron)Python as well! I've always said that Python for a scripting perfect language for Microsoft to "assimilate", because it is more well-rounded than PHP, better licensed than Ruby, and, most importantly, it avoids the UNIXy legacy of most scripting languages, especially Perl. Glad to see that Microsoft is starting to fulfill its potential, and I hope they'll go further, making Python a core component of
Visual Studio 2012.
It's also great that Microsoft is either winning or becoming very competitive on both the client (IE9) and the server (Azure). It was all but inevitable given Microsoft's multi-billion R&D budget and cozy relationship with hardware vendors. And Microsoft can do something none of its client-side competitors (Google, Mozilla, Apple, Opera) or its server-side competitors (Google, Amazon, RackSpace, etc) hope to do any time soon, which is provide a full-stack developer solution that makes it easy and comfortable to develop application components on both ends.
You
almost never see any pro-Microsoft news if you're living in a "free software" bubble and only read sites like
Slashdot. It's almost like being a member of a cult... However, even Slashdot has to let through some good Microsoft news every once in a while. Here are some recent exceptions:
Alex...have you ever owned a Mac? [...] |
Oh Hell No! Macs have always been toy computers for idiots. They've gotten better with MacOS X, but it's just mediocre both as a UNIX and as a GUI. You often have to use multi-platform Java apps to get anything done on a Mac, but Mac's Java sucks. Apple's war with Adobe could cost it the only decent apps they have!
You're better off running Windows on the client (which gets you a myriad of apps you can't get on a Mac, including the full stack from Microsoft), and *BSD on the server (which is cheaper and more flexible). I run *BSD on the client as well, but I can't recommend that for everybody, as I can with Microsoft.
Microsoft is not Bill Gates. Microsoft is its products and services, many of which are excellent.