I’m a C# .NET developer. I have spent most of the past 18 years in Windows. I’ve played around with various Linux distros, but it’s really been hobby stuff. Another hobby over the past three years has been learning Erlang. Until recently I’ve used the Windows builds of Erlang and it’s been fun and easy.
I’m now on a full-time Erlang project and have realized my Windows-centric approach to Erlang development is adding lots of friction to “going pro”. Erlang runs perfectly well on Windows, but most of the Erlang community develops on Linux (or Mac). As a result, the developer tool-chain is much more complete in Linux. As I learn I’m constantly translating to Windows what the experts are saying and doing in Linux, and occasionally I hit dead ends. It’s been a challenge, but not the fun, worthwhile kind. So now I’m learning how to be an all-day-in-it Erlang developer on Linux (Ubuntu 10.10). I’ve had many newbie questions and I’m attempting to document them. I plan to post answers as I stumble across them (e.g.- I’m currently piecing together a post on “Upgrading Erlang to 14B01 on Ubuntu 10.10″ ).
I have a professional goal of being able to fluidly shift between C#, Ruby, F# and Erlang on both Windows and Linux. Bigotry and partisanship aren’t pretty anywhere– not even in technology. I’m aiming to not have favorites or default answers, but instead to pick the best tool for the situation. It’s going to hurt a bit, but I think on the other side of this journey I’ll be a happier, smarter and more useful developer. And really what’s the alternative? Complacency? To acknowledge there are better ways to do what I’m doing, but that I’m too much of a “sorry ass” to get there? Please, heavens, no.
I’d be curious to hear from other folks who have made (or are embarking on) this journey.
#1 by Calvin Bottoms at January 25th, 2011
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Count me in. Been struggling lately with picking a major, so to speak. I find a broader, less tool-centric approach much more appealing. I think every language, platform, and community has something valuable to teach.
#2 by Tarn Barford at February 6th, 2011
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I have similar goals and a somewhat similar background. I think it’s a great journey.
I’ve been exclusively using Ubuntu outside of work for the last year or so which has really helped accelerate my learning and I am now completely hooked on the Linux terminal and terminal tools.
I personally a big fan of the keyboard and have written a couple of posts on some of the tools I’ve found to get things done and avoid the mouse.
http://tarnbarford.net/journal/oh-screen-where-have-you-been
http://tarnbarford.net/journal/the-mouse-is-dead–long-live-the-keyboard
For Erlang, where I am a total noob, I have been using Rebar to compile and get dependencies. I think it’s fantastic and well worth the extra build dependency.
I have you on Twitter now, hopefully we can help each other out along the way to “going pro” with Erlang
#3 by Jim Cowart at March 25th, 2011
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I completely get where you’re coming from! I wish I had more time to invest on the Erlang side. But my desire to get out of the “Microsoft/Windows” gravity well has led me in some unexpected directions. I love some of the tooling on the Mac side, but am very impressed with Ubuntu as well. I’ve been very frustrated with the .NET web story (web forms is awful, MVC is a vast improvement, but I’m SO tired of server side frameworks). The trails being blazed by people like Steve Sanderson (oddly enough, he’s on the ASP.NET/IIS team) have inspired me to work on web clients that aren’t necessarily MS or .NET dependent. Which frees me up to dev on any platform I want….so my Ubuntu install is going to be complete SOON!