Why Microsoft .NET is a disappointment

Microsoft has a nice framework with .NET, a nice IDE, some nice infrastructure components, but overall .NET is - from a non-technical standpoint - a desaster.

[1] VB6 people are not migrating to .NET, the framework doesn't feel "at home" for them, C# is the more natural option to code .NET, but that's a tough transition.

[2] Java Seminars in europe in the large training institutes/system houses outsell .NET trainings at least by a factor of three (I talked with a product manager today, he had shown me some numbers)

[3] Innovation today happens in the open-source-sector (see Java as an example, Eclipse, Hibernate, Struts, Spring, Rails,...) .NET only has a handful of open-source projects, some of them like nHibernate are ports from Java.

[4] .NET is bound to the Windows platform, will follow it's continued success/failure. Mono is no real option for .NET deployment on other platforms, as there's near zero commercial backing (do you know any commercial projects backed by Mono?)

[5] There's zero .NET useage in Windows Vista . Microsoft had some tough back-compatibilities issues. Maybe they don't trust their framework internally? Why the heck should we code in .NET if even MS only uses it for irrelevant parts?

[6] Microsoft XAML for Rich-Client-UIs is delayed...

[7] Monster/DICE job-postings show 2-3 times higher demand for Java developers than .NET

[8] Most large enterprises are standardizing on Java, not on .NET, because it provides you with a complete platform independence (you can get VMs from Sun, IBM, BEA), Java generally has a better VM performance (link is just one of many examples) and a more solid API.

[9] .NET offers too few features. Just compare .NET with Java (e.g. you need components for IMAP connections, there's hundreds of more examples)

[10] Where's ANT, Spring, a real application server with clustering features (NOT that shabby MS Clustering service) for .NET

[11] Where's the competition in the area of the IDE? Java has Eclipse, NetBeans, IntelliJ to name a few. There's always alternatives. Your products need to be better to survive in the Java world.

Now, go and flame me.

Sun Java System Application Server 8.2 / J2EE 1.4 SDK on Ubuntu

If you're trying to install the latest (stable) Sun application server (be it the J2EE 1.4SDK variant or the SJSAS 8.2 platform edition) on Ubuntu you'll end up with a could-not-found-some-weird-version-of-glibc-error.

Just " sudo apt-get install libstdc++2.10-glibc2.2" and you're done. Re-install. Works fine.

Reading ebooks with my new toy :-)

So, I have more than 100 different technical books as .PDF documents. Printing every single book is no option. I travel a lot, carrying all those print-outs around is unconvenient. So I started looking around for an ebook-reader. Found the Iliad from IRex Technologies. Seemed fine at first, BUT price was extremely high (650 Euros, that's US$ 750 incl. VAT) and first reports say it takes up to two seconds (!!!) to flip a page. Ridiculous for a pure book-reading device without any display backlight, too.

The upcoming Sony eBook reader has a resolution of 800x600, not sufficient for full letter/A4 PDF documents.

So, I started looking for tablets. Seem to be extremely expensive. Hey, Bill G.! I thought tablet-PCs would be an average Joe-Schmoe technology today, didn't you promise that? In fact, new tablets (the slate one's without keyboard, lightweight, etc.) are pretty expensive.

I found a used Compaq TC-1000 on ebay for roughly US$ 750, and I'm pretty happy with it. Battery lasts 3 hours while reading .PDF at max screen brightness, device is light and well-built. I'm really enjoying ebooks on my tablet.

Who's gonna buy one of those crappy ebook readers then???

JBoss acquired by RedHat

So, the news is out. JBoss will join RedHat. I'm actually pretty pleased that it's RHAT and not Larry's Oracle. Kudos to Marc Fleury that he (at least it seems so) rejected higher offerings by ORCL and looked for a company that better suited their business model and ideas. Now go and code a decent web administration console for your application server (which would actually help our customers a lot).

Should I do that?

Hmmm... I've been offered an opportunity about two weeks ago. An international publisher is looking for an author for a new programming book. You won't get rich with these kinds of books. But it may be helpful for my future career...

I don't know. From a technical standpoint that book won't be a problem (the book would be an updated fourth or fifth edition of a book that has been written by a - now unavailable - author). But time's the critical point.

I left university (and my law studies) several years ago to start an IT career (so far it went ok, not too successful, no failure either) and I plan on re-joining university in the coming months. Such a book would make these plans a whole lot more difficult. Who would suffer? My girlfriend would (regarding time we spent together). Is that worth it?

Damn... I don't know.

Our London trip...

We came back yesterday from a four-day trip to one of the greatest cities on earth! No, seriously. We really enjoyed London. Visited many extremely interesting places.

You can't beat the tube!

Absolutely. The tube was perfect for our trips! Reliable, not too crowded, cheap and super-easy to understand.

Natural History and British Museum!

Impressive, simply impressive and free of charge! Breathtaking architecture, cool exhibitions. Don't miss these places when you're visiting London!

London Eye

Quite expensive, but worth every penny. The view was magnificent.

London was pretty crowded overall, but our hotel was nice (in Kensington) and we'll definitely visit London again.

Welcome to my (kind of anonymous) diary!

Welcome!


Hopefully I'll bet getting used to filling this blog with my very personal thoughts. I had my 30th birthday some days ago. No kids so far, some relations, no "solid" life. I'm no native english speaker, but I prefer to write in english so that someone - who accidentially visits this blog - might read my thougts.

My everyday life is filled up with it stuff. Java and the Java Enterprise Editon, Application servers, application clustering, etc. I work as a trainer and consultant.

But hopefully (and I'll work for that) my life will change in the coming years. Not that I'm suffering or something. But I've never been satisfied with my private situation and job during the last 10 years.

We'll see :-)