[2003-06-07] Saying “No!” to Windows

I do not want to code for Windows any more!

I could empathise with Danny Smith (even as I tried to dissuade him) when he expressed his wish to work with “a real OS” for a change - I have also been exposed to all sorts of Windows ugliness in trying to make GCJ work on Windows and have been disgusted by some of the design choices its creators have made. As a user I have been a victim of its vagaries several times. What a pathetic excuse for an operating system!

On the other hand, I have always immensely enjoyed working on Linux and have admired the ability of the motley crew of hackers to come up with such an elegant and efficient system that provides such a wonderful alternative to the monstrosity that is Windows.

The final “WTF?” occured to me when I read the biography of Richard Stallman a couple of days ago and realised how utterly, totally and completely idiotic it was of me to code for a system that I loathe and not for a system that I love - especially one for which so many great hackers had made so much personal sacrifice just so that all of us could have a great Free (as in “Freedom”) system.

So I will only code for Linux for my personal projects from now on. I will continue to work on GCJ of course in my free time and try to improve it in whichever way I possibly can, but only on Linux. GCJ should become good enough to allow a state of the art 3D game, complete with scripting, AI, physics and networking to be written entirely in Java!

Speaking of games, I recently spent a huge amount of time playing Golden Sun for the GameBoy Advance only to get sick of it and quit just before the final “Boss” battle! Meanwhile I eagerly await the release of Half-Life 2, the awesomely promising sequel to the best game I have ever played! The physics and AI shown so far in this sequel is just superb and has me drooling all over the place.

Other Posts from 2003