I've gotta admit. I've been reading this thread all evening. I think
I've had the "Holy crap" thought roll through my mind more times than
reading any other thread... anywhere.
Look, I'll level with you all... this is putting an incredibly bad
taste in my mouth. I'm not totally sure where to begin. Let me try
anyway...
1.5 years ago I bought a bunch of PowerBooks and set up my best
developers with WebObjects licenses and a ton of books. Our goal was
to port some apps from .NET to WO. Our goal: We wanted to move to a
more cross-platform environment, using technologies from a major
third-party vendor, and wanted to find some way to ease into Java from
C#. We chose WebObjects to ease the pain. Unfortunately, flying
developers from California to Florida, and putting them up in one of
our corporate condos for a week, for the sole purpose of teaching us
WebObjects, we ditched the plan. The reason: there was simply not
enough momentum with the WO community. For a product to be around for
as many years as it has, there is almost nobody using it nor any books
(as compared to other technologies that have been around as long). In
short, we just didn't have the "warm n' fuzzies" anymore.
Okay, so we released more products in .NET and have been paying the
bills ever since. The PowerBooks were ditched and everyone kept moving
forward. That is, everyone except me. I ended up buying a new 15"
Aluminum and kept tinkering with every Apple technology I could get my
hands on. I also kept reading the forums (a "lurker" I guess). And,
of course, I've posted the typical "Why WebObjects?" messages and got
the same canned answers. From a conceptual standpoint, I love EO and
all of the other WO-related concepts but even I cannot bring myself to
move from a steady paycheck, compliments of M$ [unfortunately]. For
these reasons I have also posted several of the questions asking about
equivalent technologies so I could get all of the WO-like technologies
without relying on something that does not FEEL as if it will be around
tomorrow.
Look, Apple, if you are listening, take it from the horse... I've got
20 years of development experience and have maintained a six-figure
income for almost 10 of them. This is all complements of Microsoft. I
openly admit this, but I also admit that I loathe Microsoft. Still,
how can I justify moving to a platform where the vendor/maintainer of
that platform keeps everything so "hush hush?" If I don't have the
warm and fuzzies, then how can I leave a guaranteed income and proven
technologies? And, more importantly, how the hell can I confidently
convince my clients to invest in WebObjects and Apple if I cannot
answer simple questions relating to the future of the platform?
My clients are large companies and private organizations. In the last
few years, for example, Blue Cross, Mercedes, Cisco, CBS, Sony,
Amazon.Com, and countless start-ups paying top dollar. Generally, I'm
brought in as an Enterprise Architect and asked to recommend
technologies. Although I love the CONCEPT behind what you guys have in
WebObjects, and the cult-like following is intriguing, the bottom line
is that my fascination with the environment is not enough for me to
bank my reputation on the novelty. Granted, Microsoft may be the bad
big brother, or whatever else you'd like to call them, but they are
vocal about their goals and consistent with their enhancements.
Okay, so I'm ranting. I'm sorry. I guess I just want to come out of
the closet with my PowerBook and stop hiding it from the world. It's
just so damn frustrating that a company would choose to act this way.
I WANT to switch. I've got the money to switch. I've got the desire
to switch. But, damn, how can I!?!? I can't walk into a M$-only shop
with my shiny new laptop, regardless of how stable it may be or how
cool it looks (unless I strip off OS X and throw on some UNIX build to
satisfy the geeks, but even then I've got some explaining to do).
You're just not reliable enough. You've got cool hardware and
concepts, but no Fortune 1000 company is going to base business
decisions on "coolness."
I guess my choices are the following...
Microsoft:
Tried and true. You may hate them. They have security holes every few
days. However, they pay the bills and, for the most part, major
companies trust them.
Sun / Oracle:
Just way too damn expensive most of the time... period. On top of
that, the whole community is just odd to work with. I just don't enjoy
the typical "Sun-only" environment.
Linux / Red Hat / SuSE / Open Source
No way. From a personal perspective, I just don't WANT to rely on open
source code. Sure, I love what open source brings to the table, but
until a company takes the ball and runs with it... until a company
invests part of themselves in the product... I ain't wasting my time.
Again, most Fortune 500/1000 companies are not going to touch open
source, so why would I?
Apple:
I love you guys. You offer the reliable of great RISC-based hardware
(the "up side" of something like Sun). You offer a stable UNIX-based
OS (with a pleasant operating environment, which I can enjoy working
in). Your pricing is lower than that of the other RISC systems. The
community has a better "feel" than that of the Sun follows.
UNFORTUNATELY, you are just too damn secretive and you do NOT support
your developer community (the guys that end up recommending to the VPs
of the world what platform to go with).
Oh, well... I'm probably wasting my time writing this. If the rest of
this group has been wishing, ranting, and waiting for as long as you
have stated in your posts, then what value does a M$ guy have by saying
the same things.
I'll guess I'll crash for the evening. When tomorrow rolls around,
I'll throw my Toshiba Satellite, with my copy of XP Pro and .NET 2003
in my backpack, in my backpack and take off. I've got some work to do
on a COM+ and MSMQ service tomorrow anyway... hmm... queuing with EO
and WebObjects... oh, nevermind.
Nite,
"Ryan" ... damn, I can't even use my real name here.
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