cgrealy

Linux wouldn't be zero. There's still a cost involved in installing the OS, even if it's miniscule and automatable. You can bet your life that laptop manufacturers are going to charge you for it.

Every engineer at my job uses a mac. Same for my friends job.

In fact, the only people who use windows are finance people, HR, etc

Peoples inability to come up with a better alternative doesn’t mean there aren’t issues with capitalism.

Fossil fuels are the easiest and most effective way of powering transport at the moment (and pretty much the only game in town for air travel). Doesn’t mean they aren’t a massive problem.

I can’t remember the source, but there’s a quote that goes “it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism”.

I’ve yet to read any kind of optimistic sci-fi that operates in a capitalist society. The two most obvious (Star Trek and the Culture) both envision a post-scarcity society enabled by technology so advanced it might as well be magic.

The Windows API is no longer the focus for .Net. They are very clearly pushing large scale web apps.

I’d be curious to know what percentage of people are still writing windows clients. I suspect there’s a lot of legacy code still out there, but it’s clearly not the future

Minor correction: Q3 came out in 99, so it was probably written in either VC++ 97 or VC6.

Otherwise, carry on.

> Tom Waits did have a point that I think today's content creators need to take onboard. With music it was not always about money for everyone, the love of music was motivating enough, bringing people together for a good time.

The difference is that artists used to be able to earn a decent living from selling their art.

Today, artists (unless they are actually producing physical artifacts) are expected to give their work away for free (or for so little as to be pointless).

Deciding not to do “normal” things is fine. You don’t want to drink or smoke or watch TV? Good for you.

But it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. You can enjoy some really great TV and ignore the reality dreck. You can have a beer with friends or enjoy a wine with a meal without being an alcoholic.

And you can go for a run without feeling the need to look down on people who don’t want to do ultras.

Horses for courses..

If you want to build a shed, go to your local hardware store and buy a kit set.

If you want to build a skyscraper, get an architect, some engineers and a competent building company.

Just don’t generalise about massive groups of people? “Eastern” and “western” culture are not monoblocs.

> Whether that's "purely capitalist" or not, it's still not safe to be a leftist in the USA.

I don’t disagree.

Remember that “shocking” scene from the Newsroom years ago where the main character had the audacity to suggest the US wasn’t the freedom-est country in the world?

The rest of the world just nodded and said “yeah, we know”.

Depends on how socialist you want your socialism to be.

Most countries aren’t purely socialist in the same way the US isn’t purely capitalist.

Who would want to live in a purely socialist society? Probably very few people.

Who would want to live in a social democratic society? Most of the developed world.

Yes, unfettered market forces have a fantastic track record in solving problems of wealth disparity.

Btw, I have this amazing bridge for sale….

Your software probably won’t be running in 100 years, but in 10 years? 15? Absolutely possible.

In fact, after 20 years writing software with various companies, the only ones that didn’t have code older than 10 years were the startups.

But even then, that doesn’t matter. If you’re code is really complex, you’re going to struggle to come back to it in 6 months, never mind 6 years.

Code should be as complex as it needs to be and no more. Write with maintainability in mind.