Hackers Discuss 'AWS Killing the DevOps Profession'

If you want a tough coding question answered, you go to Stack Overflow. If you want a more open-ended development question answered by an active community full of subject-matter experts, you go to Hacker News.

Chalking up reader comments this morning on the forum site is the following "Ask HN" question:

Posted by David Ramel on April 24, 20170 comments

Upheaval Hits Ubuntu

One thing about the open source movement in general -- and Linux specifically: Watching the software development process can certainly be more interesting than staid, proprietary corporate coding.

I guess it all started with ol' Linus himself, prone to biting, profane criticisms of fellow volunteer developers (see "Top [Expletive] Linus Torvalds Rants").

Posted by David Ramel on April 13, 20170 comments

Linux Is Ready for the Desktop

Attention all developers: Linux is ready for the desktop. Here's how I know:

• Title: Linux Is Ready for the Desktop - Now
  Date: June 2000
  Supporting Quote: "In a corporate enviornment, the Linux UI can be mandated just as easily as the Windows UI can ... can't it? With the widespread implementation of XML, won't Linux/Star Office be able to access the Excel/Word/Access/Macros that 'schpyder'(?) referred to without a great deal of recoding/downtime?"
  
  
• Title: Why Linux Is Ready for the Desktop
  Date: July 2003
  Supporting Quote: "The fact is that for most anything that a 'windows user' ie: someone accustomed to the windows way of working, for 95 percent plus of hardware/software stuff, you never need to go to the CLI on a modern distro."
  
  
• Title: Linux Is Ready for the Desktop
  Date: January 2004
  Supporting Quote: "In 2001, Linux started popping up on servers run by adventurous penny-pinchers at places like Amazon.com, which saved millions of dollars by replacing Sun servers running Solaris with HP servers running Linux. By the end of the year, 53 percent of chief information officers surveyed by Gartner said they were seriously considering installing Linux on their servers; in December 2002, that number leapt to 77 percent.' from 'Linux Is Ready for the Desktop" on Business 2.0's Working Tech.'
  
  
• Title: Linux Is Ready for the D esktop -- But Whose Desktop?
  Date: July 2005
  Supporting Quote: "Anyone who argues that Linux as an operating system isn't usable for the everyday user (not the commercial graphic designer, not the heavy gamer), I'd challenge you: find a Linux expert (someone who knows just about anything about installing Linux, someone who can install Slackware or Linux from Scratch with her hands tied behind her back) and find a Linux ignoramus (someone who's never heard of Linux)."
  
  
• Title: Linux Is Ready for the Desktop, and This Is No Longer a Debatable Matter
  Date: "10 years ago"
  Supporting Quote: "Modern Linux offerings for the desktop provide a cohesive and predictable experience."
  
  
• Title: Linux IS Ready for the Desktop
  Date: March 2007
  Supporting Quote: "It's not that hard to install a Linux OS (not anymore). In fact, I can't think of any glitches that occured when I installed 6.06. I do know that having a particular type of system in the school system does make a bit of an impact on people, but then why aren't more people buying Apple machines in droves?
  
  
• Title: Linux Is Desktop Ready for Most People
  Date: October 2007
  Supporting Quote: " I think I can say that the vast majority of average users out there who have desktop computers are ready for Linux. The only ones you can subtract are people with advanced needs, e.g: 3D gaming or HD video editing, and people with incredibly incompatible hardware."
  
  
• Title: Yes, Linux Is 'Ready for the Desktop'
  Date: May 2008
  Supporting Quote: "There are now at least three viable choices in choosing a desktop operating environment: Linux, Mac, and Windows. Yup, Linux on the desktop is ready for prime-time."
  
  
• Title: Why Linux Is Ready for the Desktop Today
  Date: June 2009
  Supporting Quote: "Linux is ready for the desktop -- of that, there is no doubt. The ever increasing number of users adopting Linux is testament to its accessibility."
  
  
• Title: Linux IS Ready For The Desktop
  Date: August 2010
  Supporting Quote: "In fact, Linux is no harder to install than any other Operating System. But since Windows comes pre-installed, all the user must do is to activate the end user license to get going. The only thing we -- Linux users -- must do, is to install it on their computer in dual-boot mode, and give them a few how-tos on how to work with it. Isn't that something we all have done in the past many times?"

Posted by David Ramel on April 1, 20170 comments

Full Stack Developer Beats Data Scientist in Best Jobs Report

If you've been upskilling, retraining and chasing the dream of becoming a highly paid, extremely sought after and well respected data scientist, you might want to rethink that.

Indeed.com, a jobs site with its own active and prolific data science team, published a new report that names full stack developer as the best job in the U.S., surpassing their own profession as the usual No. 1 in such studies.

Posted by David Ramel on March 24, 20170 comments

Stack Overflow: Cross-Platform Mobile Tech 'Most Dreaded'

Stack Overflow's huge survey polling more than 64,000 developers was just published, providing more insights into my favorite category: the "most dreaded" programming languages, frameworks, databases and other technologies.

In listing the "most dreaded" technologies, Stack Overflow Developer Survey Results 2017 presents the "percent of developers who are developing with the language or technology but have not expressed interest in continuing to do so."

Posted by David Ramel on March 22, 20170 comments

Visual Studio 2017: What Features Didn't Make It, What Are Planned

With the long-awaited Visual Studio 2017 finally rolling out this week, here's a look at some user-requested features that didn't make into Microsoft's flagship IDE, and some that are on track for future releases.

Microsoft uses its User Voice site to solicit ideas and feature requests from developers, and faithfully addresses each, marking them as Completed, Under Review, Declined, Planned and so on.

Posted by David Ramel on March 10, 20170 comments

Developers Should Take Heed of Apple's Enterprise Push

Programmers, who already favor Macs as their preferred dev machines, might be coding more Mac and iOS apps in the future, judging from new research that indicates Apple's enterprise push is succeeding.

"Consistent with Apple reports, Apple is gaining ground in the enterprise," said Jamf this week in announcing the new research. "Ninety-one percent of businesses use Mac and 99 percent use iPhone, iPad or both."

Posted by David Ramel on March 10, 20170 comments

Learning to Code? You Have to Care

You see variations of the same question all the time on programming forums here and there: How should I go about learning to code?

Posted by David Ramel on February 24, 20170 comments

MongoDB Ransom Notes: Humor, Bad Spelling, Not Much Style

With phrases like, "We are so sorry," and, "wtf were you thinking," ransomware notes from the recent deluge of database hijackings came in all styles, shapes and sizes.

However, it looks like the quality of ransom notes really went downhill when the script kiddies got wind of the wide-open gold (or rather, Bitcoin) mine and piled on after the late-December MongoDB attacks were first publicized. Some exhibited absolutely no sense of style or even decent formatting (doesn't readability count in criminal ransom notes anymore?) and were rife with bad spelling and grammar mistakes.

Posted by David Ramel on January 20, 20170 comments

React Native Gets a Button!

Believe it or not, React Native -- the popular JavaScript-based approach championed by Facebook for building iOS and Android apps -- didn't have a simple, core button component until last week's version 0.37 rollout.

Posted by David Ramel on November 17, 20160 comments