What pain?
Who is forcing you to use Elixir on Windows?
I understand that you want to try it out and that it would be inconvenient to have to do that on an OS that isn’t the one you are immediately familiar with. But as it is there is enough on Windows to get the feel of it.
If you want a comfortable life on Windows you stick to
- paid software by Microsoft or vendors who specifically support Windows
- open source software actively developed or funded by Microsoft
- open source software with a substantial contingent of maintainers from the Windows user community
But if you are among the curious you have to venture out beyond of Windows at some point in time.
I’m to this day surprised that there even is a version of the BEAM that runs on Windows as I doubt that the BEAM would be used in production on a Windows Server (you could, but would you want to?). So the Windows BEAM may simply exist for demonstration and education purposes (I could be wrong though).
I think that if the question is how to promote Elixir more, make it more accessible, relevant and cater to more developers.
Yes, but at what (opportunity) cost?
According to this ASP.NET is only being used on 13% of public sites. Granted for internal sites that percentage is probably much higher.
While Windows has a lead as a desktop OS, it isn’t in the lead when it comes to “the cloud”.
Ironically, Microsoft is leading by example.
Another perspective would be that they realized that they would have to take OSS more seriously and invigorate that part of the their ecosystem in order to prevent their existing customer base from wandering off and trying OSS that doesn’t involve Windows in the short term. In the long term they are adjusting their entire business model - even if it means running more Linux on Azure than Windows. Looks more like a sound business decision.
You know, I wonder how relevant Linux would be for the end-user
Linux doesn’t typically have any relevance to a desktop end-user unless they are Microsoft-haters. Most desktop end-users just want to do their “computer stuff” (to which the desktop PC is becoming increasingly less relevant) and get on with their life.
Going by this use of Android is already neck and neck with Windows, so it wouldn’t be too surprising if Chrome OS is going to eat even further into Windows’s share of the pie for the for the “wanna surf the 'net and do emails” crowd.
you think this is drastically different when you’re trying to build/ expand a community?
Given how constrained the resources within most OSS communities are, intentionally directing effort toward expansion can be risky given that it can be wasteful. So most expansion efforts will tend to focus on interacting with people, people who are may be willing to put some of their time behind the community effort.
Much of this line of thought is what I was referring to as the “Ruby effect”…
And the “Ruby effect” is really only a thing from an “unwilling to explore beyond the boundaries of Windows” perspective. Ruby only really became famous because of Rails and Rails just like LAMP was designed for use on *NIX servers - on Windows you stuck to ASP Classic and later ASP.NET.
Saying to those developers to use subpar alternatives like VMs or emulators (which in my experience hinders more than helps) is the easy way out and only improves the disparity we already see here.
Sorry but you just went on and on about that Windows developers shouldn’t be inconvenienced or shouldn’t need to go out of their way to try something new and then promptly turned around suggesting that non-Windows developers should make more of an effort to be more inclusive of Windows developers. I see a disparity there.
it’s about expanding the horizons
As long as it’s on Windows?
Did it cross your mind that a lot of people not currently in the community are being deprived of something
My perspective is that they are depriving themselves.
To summarize once again:
- The lazy path: Switch your OS, or at least learn how to run another OS in a VM on Windows.
- The hard work path: If the Windows experience is important to you become a contributing member for the Windows tooling. And more importantly, help to recruit other Windows users to that same end.
The behavior of “our way or no way” is a terrible postcard.
Has it occurred to you that it may be you who is taking that stance?
Windows is my way, therefore it is the way … ???
that is a real interest in improving that for users.
OSS is about people (and some companies) sharing their hard work with others - it’s not a some kind of service industry.
Microsoft Visual Studio is a paid-for product which has been in development for over 20 years.
The IDE Divide
If you want to be a Tool-Maven, fine.
The downside is that IDEs only appear much later in the adoption curve.
As it is there is intellij-elixir (in the Clojure world you have to pay a license fee for something similar).
To say that “just use VIM” (as I’ve seen people say in other places) is kind of, well, unenlightened
How so - given that it works in so many places.
I’m not saying that we need to have AI-enabled suggestions (like in VS), but there really “needs” to be better cross-platform IDE support nowadays.
Have you ever considered using JetBrains products?
Cross-platform means also Windows.
Visual Studio for Mac is the only non-Windows version of Microsoft Visual Studio (IDE) I’m aware of.
All I’m really asking for is that OSS users manage their expectations - the only real way to influence anything is by contributing in some way (and some corporate OSS won’t even allow that).
