On Thursday, May 30, 2013 9:31:45 AM UTC-7, Volker Braun wrote: > > First of all, its the Google summer of code and not the Microsoft summer > of code ;-) > > On Thursday, May 30, 2013 5:07:22 PM UTC+1, rjf wrote: > >> While it is hard to count how many people are using free software by >> looking >> at (say) sourceforge statistics --- some people get secondary >> distributions -- >> for packages of Maxima, the vast majority of direct downloads, at least, >> are for >> Windows. > > > That is because everyone but Microsoft has solved the problem of package > management. >
Yes, I agree that secondary distributions for linux means they are undercounted. I do not know if Windows is truly in decline. However, the latest Windows release of Maxima shows 1,545,527 direct downloads. Every linux distribution lets you install maxima with a one-liner, > cryptographic chain of trust to the packager included. Maxima for windows > still requires you to download an executable file from the internet with a > web browser. Your download statistics is for users without package > management. > > >> Sage architects seem to believe it epitomizes a high level of software >> engineering. Yet it cannot be run natively on the (still) most highly >> available platform. >> > > Or as I call it, the most quickly declining platform. You would do a > disservice to students to teach them today about platforms that will > clearly be obsolete by the time they will enter the workforce. > I think you badly underestimate the value of a skilled Microsoft Windows expert now and over the next decade or more. I don't care for the Windows development environment, I am hardly an expert on it though. I have had students working for me who became skilled in using it and found it (eventually) to be quite productive. As I said previously, I think the lack of a mentor in this area may disqualify GSoC Sage projects in this subject. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-devel" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
