Does anyone remember that whole Mac vs PC debate? When I saw those commercials, I assumed they were hyperbolas. However, I am finding that this is actually a very real mindset that some people actually really have.
It makes sense for bloggers, writers, and people that simply use computers to access the internet. They can use whatever they want because the hardware of a computer is so irrelevant for these needs (most everything meets the basic standards these days). They can play with what makes them happy; they can even use tablets with rubber keyboards!
However, I work for an advertising agency. More specifically, I develop websites for this company’s clients. This company just so happens to be a .NET shop. And for those of you that don’t know, .NET was developed by Microsoft for Microsoft products like Windows, aka “the PC.”
At work, we use a lot of Microsoft products and programs like Team Foundation Server (TFS) and Visual Studio. When I started working here, I didn’t know anything about .NET. I knew HTML, CSS, JavaScript/jQuery, things of that nature, etc. I knew mostly basic developer stuff.
But I’m pretty open-minded, I think, so I learned how to develop a website in .NET at this company. If I had gotten a job in a place where they created websites solely in PHP, I would’ve learned that too because that’s what the company uses, so as its employee, that’s what I needed to learn and use to keep a job here.
During my time at this company, we’ve hired developers that are not just people that prefer Apple products but are actively anti-Microsoft.
Now as a developer, specifically a developer in a fast-paced environment such as the advertising industry, I firmly believe that the developer should use whatever tools they want in order to be most efficient in their work so that it can get to QA as fast as humanly possible. And that works perfectly when you work independently.
But when you’re on a team and expected to hand off files to another developer to continue working, there needs to be some kind of standard so that the “ramping up” time for the new developer to pick up where you left off is minimized. Nobody wants to waste time teaching (or being taught) how to make your website files run or constantly convert between PHP and .NET.
The whole team needs to be able to work together to achieve the goal. You might have to show them around the codebase a bit for the new developer to get familiar, but otherwise, they could (and should) just as easily pull the files down from the cloud and just start tinkering with stuff.
What I’m saying is that while developers can have their biases, opinions, and preferences (and these are all wonderfully valid things that make us people), these should not be what completely removes tools from the toolbox when playing with others.
Developers, especially, should not be staunchly anti-Microsoft or anti-Apple. We should be open to learning whatever tools are necessary for doing the job and doing it well. The day you stop learning or refuse to use certain tools is the day your career as a developer ends because technology never stops evolving.
