itsboring

Can you give specific examples? As far as I know, every improvement to MonoDevelop and Mono has been contributed back to the open source projects, which benefits Linux users as well.

My team is currently working on a project targeting Linux using Mono and MonoDevelop, with heavy use of OpenGL and the like. The recent improvements have been great.

So, I'm very curious, what is your actual complaint?

IE11 has crazy regressions in keyframe animations and transitions. Stuff that worked fine in IE10 and every other browser on the planet now requires voodoo like using settimeout to delay for a magical number of ms before setting certain style properties.

I agree with you about windows, but I've been doing C# development on mac and linux for the past year. I don't even call myself a .NET developer anymore, I just say Mono or C#.

At work, I threw arch on an old-ass laptop we had sitting around, and then installed steam and portal, hooked it up to the office TV and then had to sit there a minute to marvel at the fact that it all just worked. Never would have predicted that a decade+ ago.

Wasn't meaning to imply that, he's not stupid in the least. What I was impressed with was the initiative, as many users are afraid to make a change like that on their own.

QtCreator is great, I don't get enough chances to work with it (mostly doing C# in monodevelop).

VS has really annoyed me lately when I've had to hop into windows. Way too much "waiting for background task to complete" stuff going on.

I tried using cygwin for a while too, but I finally gave up and tossed windows out the...uh...window. The cygwin folks have made a heroic effort, but it still feels like putting lipstick on a pig.

Fair enough, but the point was that I ddin't force anything. Like I said in the post, I offered to get him a windows license, but he didn't need it. I didn't try "making" them use anything, as you put it.

Man, I hope so.(speaking as someone who worked at msft for 2 years)

This is a very keen observation, I feel like mobile devices have helped a ton with breaking the chokehold that Gates and Ballmer have had on the industry.

At the very least, you don't have to fucking activate it. I hate Microsoft activation with a passion.

I think Mint is a wonderful distro, always love using it. I'd set dad up with that, but he's made so much progress with Ubuntu that I don't want to upset the apple cart at this point. Maybe in a year or two.

Agree completely, I feel like it would have actually been harder to teach my parents windows 8 than the systems they're using now. Trying to explain the difference between the metro screen and the desktop just sounds like a nightmare.

Yeah, that's very possible. All I know is that neither of them have had to call me for help so far.

That's true, but I do have to point out that I recently gave a mac mini to my mom before my dad started using the Ubuntu laptop. I went that direction rather than upgrading her PC from Vista, so it's cost them at least two sales.

I realize that means nothing in the grand scheme, but I still feel it's a powerful anecdote given that my parents are "average" computer users.

Very true, if there are driver problems then it becomes a big ordeal. However, we must consider that most Windows installations are set up by an OEM, and in my case, it was already set up by me. In those situations, what matters most is the usability of the system after it's already set up.

I doubt my parents would be able to install a fresh copy of either OS without my help.

That's awesome, love to hear stories like that.

I use ServiceStack under Mono as an alternative to Asp.net mvc and I love it.

The problem with huge displays is that the ratio doesn't work out in our favor. Great for movies, not for text. It's counter-intuitive, but with low vision, you still have to sit close enough that a wall-sized display is a ticket to neck problems.

I actually prefer monitors on the smaller side so I don't have to move my head so much.

My brother and I both have the same thing. Like you, I don't really ask for accomodations because I find it not worth the trouble; I just come up with my own solutions. The only real pain in the ass is not being able to drive. I use public transportation all the time but kinda hate it. Nothing worse after a long day than a sweaty, over-crowded bus. Also really narrows the options when apartment-hunting.

But all in all it's not the worst thing one could have by a long shot. Most days I don't even think about it.

Actually, school was a lot worse than work. I've never had any problems that I can recall at a job, I just make it clear that I don't drive to meet clients or whatever. No big loss there.

My experience matches this. For a serious project, it is a clusterfuck of dogshit proportions.

Yes, it is.

I wholeheartedly agree with your first sentence. When I think back to jobs I left, it's not because I was overworked, it's because I was bored out of my mind. I could routinely come in late, take a long lunch, and then leave early, and nobody cared because anything I tried to do was blocked by bureaucracy anyway.

Some people might consider that a luxury but I considered it a first-class ticket to depression. There's no paycheck large enough for me to sit in a seat all day and do nothing of value.

I can't speak to Rx, but I use LINQ to objects and LINQ to XML frequently. Async/await is also supported in mono 3 and is in beta for the Xamarin tools.

I wonder how many more like us are out there. I got off the Microsoft train a while ago but always loved C# the most. I use it on linux, mac, mobile; my hope is that this becomes more mainstream and less awkward from a "what kind of dev are you?" standpoint.

The MvvmCross pattern they've been promoting seems promising for maximizing shared code. We've got the most benefit from sharing stuff like libs, network code, GLES, etc. I've come to the conclusion that the thin platform API is an advantage because I'm so, so tired of punching holes through crappy abstractions.

You make a fair point and I normally share your view about compilers and tools. I think the Xamarin situation is complex, though, because most of the product is already open source. The C# compiler and x86 runtime, the standard libs (System.*), and the IDE (monodevelop aka Xamarin Studio) are all open source; and the platform bindings are a thin, almost 1:1 layer covering the iOS and android APIs. What you're really paying for is the AOT mechanism, packaging, and ARM runtime -- it's about all that's left they can sell. It's also worth noting that a ton of their code goes back into mono and associated projects.

I still think you have a good point, and I agree, but as for myself, I decided to make an exception in this case. I don't think it's quite as bad as PowerBuilder or Clarion at least.

Just wrapped up my first project at work with xamarin.ios and also used monomac for some tools. It was awesome. The app used a bunch of opengl-es on ios and everything went very smoothly. I'm always glad to see them pop up on HN.

I read his novel Incandescence recently which was also really interesting. It's about a seemingly primitive civilization of non-humanoids who have to work out relativity quickly to avert disaster. I can't claim to follow it entirely but I enjoy his work nonetheless.

I've had mixed feelings on all of this for a while. I think as developers, we're all keenly aware that there's just no silver bullet. I can't say I'd necessarily always steer others away from PhoneGap, because it may be perfect for their project and team. But as mentioned, the abstraction remains very leaky; you still have to deal with a lot of pretty frustrating scenarios that can just eat away your time.

I've also found performance to be an issue, especially if you're using animation-heavy UI to try and simulate a native experience.

Lately I prefer Xamarin's approach. The downsides have been discussed in this thread: cost, and you lose some of that open source advantage (also perhaps binary bloat--I haven't had a chance to check that out). But I think writing views separately but having common core logic, networking, etc., meshes well with how I want to work.

HTML5 is great, and I enjoy using it for web sites. But I've just never been able to get fully satisfied with it in the app space. Maybe someday!

In short, saving time is a worthy goal, surely, but producing the best quality output you can is also a worthy goal, and those two have to be balanced as appropriate for any given project. I feel that PhoneGap leans a little too much in one direction and I'm hoping Xamarin can help me find the sweet spot.