Image via WikipediaYesterday, I posted about the differences between Microsoft's, Apple's, and Ubuntu's "Getting Started for Developers" pages. I didn't comment a lot on the pictures, though maybe I should have.
My points are/were the following:
- Both Windows and Mac OS X development is easy to get into with tutorials and videos for the preferred development environments. They actively recruit and help new developers. Beginning programmers would feel comfotable. Ubuntu doesn't talk about development, but discusses packaging. No tutorials or videos are available from the "developer" page. There's little chance someone is going to write a first program on Ubuntu.
- Windows prefers Visual Studio and .NET development (C# and Visual Basic are heavily promoted). Apple highly recommends Objective-C and XCode. Mark Shuttleworth stated in 2004 that Ubuntu would be targeting Python, and the standard desktop is GNOME (signalling a preference for GTK+), but there aren't really any links pertaining to these decisions ... or even acknowledging that these decisions were made. All three platforms have many options available with regard to languages available. Of the three OSes, only Ubuntu refuses to give guidance on where to start.
- Ubuntu distinguished itself from virtually every other distro by "making opinionated choices" about applications instead of installing seven text editors, three desktop environments, and five word processors. Those opinionated choices have been missing for application development, though.
- Ubuntu 9.10 introduced Quickly as the rapid application development method for Ubuntu (making opinionated choices), but this isn't mentioned on the development page, either. Also absent are mentions of more recent development like Lernid and Ubuntu Developer Week, Ground Control and projects, and Launchpad PPAs.
- Ubuntu appears to be saying that packaging is equivalent to development.
