Accursed backdrop

[Richard Gaskin]

Richmond wrote:
 > Last time I was in Embro (about 5 year ago), I saw only Macs in their
 > office. If that is still the case it needs to be corrected.

In all fairness, I've corresponded about Linux specifically with Peter, 
Mark, and others, and had a long and pleasant discussion about it in 
person with Fraser.

So I know the engine team uses Linux extensively.  What I don't know is 
whether IDE team members use Linux at least a full day each week, as 
would seem useful for Windows as well.

After all, one of the strongest selling points of LiveCode is that it 
liberates us from the whims of any single OS vendor.  For many years I 
enjoyed deploying to Windows from my Mac, just as I now enjoy deploying 
to Windows and Mac from Linux.  Being able to move from OS to OS is what 
LiveCode is all about, so if there's any productivity loss with one OS 
over another that's not an OS issue, but an issue with LiveCode on that OS.

Cross-OS workflows among the IDE team would seem very valuable, and I've 
been told that happens to some degree.  But given the scope of Linux 
issues I'm hoping that was a misunderstanding, that instead the Linux 
use is more among the engine team, since it would be unflattering to an 
IDE team that sees the label of an option control become unreadable each 
time they use it but thinks nothing of it.

Everyone I've talked to at the company is super-smart and very earnest. 
  I'd like to think the state of the Linux engine is merely a matter of 
priorities, correctable with reasonable time and attention.


 > I would recommend a fairly current PC with Debian, and another with
 > Windows 8.1.

I would add Ubuntu to the mix as well, not just because it's pleasant 
but mostly because that one distro has some 30 million desktop users, 
far more than any other.

And Linux runs on just about anything, so it's not like they'd have to 
spend a bundle on expensive machines.  Older machines, or newer machines 
with enough RAM for a comfortable VM, would be quite fine.

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Systems
  Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
  ____________________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com                http://www.FourthWorld.com