the Forty-Second Parallel

Well, David Heinemeir Hansson (the Rails dude, in case you were wondering) has thrown down the gauntlet and declared that he "would have a hard time imagining hiring a programmer who was still on Windows ... If you don't care enough about your tools to get the best, your burden of proof just got a lot heavier." The tool he deems the best in this case is Mac OS X. David's generous enough to concede that using "Windows doesn't automatically convict you as a bad programmer." But he still insists that using Windows is "incriminating evidence that'll make your case for the opposite [that you're a good programmer] harder � not impossible."

I don't disagree that OS X is a great tool. I have a PowerBook sitting on the table next to me that follows me home at night. I've got an Xserve down the hall that is one of the best servers I've ever administered. This site was hosted on an iMac for the better part of 2 years. So, I think you could say I'm a fan of Apple and OS X. However, I'm typing this on a Windows workstation and if you go to my house, you'll find a desktop and a laptop running Windows XP and a server running Fedora Core. Some people might call me inconsistent. I tend to think of it more in terms of ambivalence and pragmatism.

I like OS X. I like Windows XP. I like Linux. Is any one of those the holy grail of computing? Not by a long shot.

OS X has a great interface and some incredible native applications, but third party support is hit or miss - I can't stand Dreamweaver for Mac; Mozilla apps still don't feel right on OS X; and Photoshop is sluggish on a 1.25 GHz G4 PB with 1 gig of RAM.

Windows XP is definitely the best OS Redmond has ever produced (hmm ... what exactly is that saying?). I confess to feeling more comfortable using Windows; it fits my brain; I know it inside and out and have all the tools I need at my finger tips. Even so, I've always been bothered by security and quality inconsistencies. They're there and I've learned how to deal with them. But, it goes without saying that they are a serious problem.

Which leads me to Linux. I'm much more likely to jump ship from Windows to Linux than from Windows to OS X. I've used OS X as my primary workstation at work for long periods of time and have been very productive. But, I never really felt at home. I almost feel at home with Linux though. Not sure why - I guess it's because KDE and Gnome borrow so heavily from Windows, the GUI is familiar. Add to that decent security, the command line and a decent array of quality tools and I'm almost home. The problem with Linux, in my mind, is that it's not quite there. The GIMP is ok, but it can't touch Photoshop. There are a handful of decent HTML editors, but nothing quite as tight as Dreamweaver.

So, in the end, what's my point? It's that there are a myriad of reasons different people use different operating systems. The only things that should matter are that the tools you use allow you to be productive and that you're comfortable using them. Just because someone isn't trying to convince the whole world to use the same tools that they use doesn't mean they have no "passion" for what they do. It could just be that they recognize different strokes for different folks, to each his own, etc.

I respect Mr. Hansson for his work on Rails and admire his passion for Macs; but I have a real problem with the underlying assumption that only automatons use Windows. I know that's not what he said. But, that's how it comes across. I just hope his opinions here don't translate into lackluster Rails support for Windows.

In my short time with Ruby, I've been obsessed focused on the browser as the delivery vehicle. With the ease of development that Rails provides, this is ideal for the majority of the needs of the apps I work on. However, there are the occasional little apps that I would like to have the ability to run on the client machine - apps that need access to details about the client environment that aren't available via the browser for security reasons. So, I've started investigating GUI frameworks available for Ruby.

I've done enough client side GUI development in the past with Python (primarily using wxPython) that something like wxRuby would probably allow to hit the ground running. But, being new to the Ruby world, I wonder what other (good) options there are out there? Is wxRuby as mature in its implementation as wxPython? I have found what looks to be a fairly decent comparison of Ruby GUI toolkits. I think what it's really going to come down to is digging in and getting my hands dirty with some of the options and picking the one that works the best for my needs.