Last Call

[Dave Foley]

Friends,

It has been nearly a year since the last non-spam post and so I think it is nigh on time to close the doors on this google group. The "ALT" has become mainstream and many of the members of the group no longer work with .NET on a daily basis, myself included.

Before I click the "disable posts" button, I'm curious to hear what you all have been up to over the past few years, technically and professionally.

As for me, I haven't touched .NET or Windows in any serious way for the past 6 years or so. I've done independent consulting, agency work, and now am working on a new startup. I've worked with ruby, java, a bunch of javascript (node.js and browser), and a smattering of other techs: python, golang, clojure, objective-c, and PHP (ugh). 

I have missed C# at various times over the past few years -- most acutely during the periods when I've worked with Java.

I don't miss Windows at all.

What have YOU been up to?

Dave

[James Thigpen]

I also finally managed to abandon Windows after trying unsuccessfully for many years to do so. I'm doing mostly python stuff now, but over the years have also worked with Ruby, PHP. I was contracting for a while, but am back doing the FTE thing at a startup. I'm doing lots of infrastructure automation/devops stuff and am starting to use Docker more extensively in my day job.

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[Shawn Neal]

I haven't really participated to the degree a lot of you have, especially WRT the BBQs, but I've definitely been in this space. I've spent far too much time supporting Windows via Vagrant and Packer, so Ruby and Golang have been wonderful. It's been really great to see some additional support for c#, because Java as a language lags, but really I enjoy working in those languages for different reasons. My goal is to get our company's .NET code base off Windows, because the language and platform are great, it's the OS from a DevOps perspective that really constrains us.

[MikeO]

Wow.  I'm not feeling ready to consign .NET to the realm of the boring quite yet even if, perhaps, that is what a successful development tool starts to look like at some point.

I'm finding rich territory in applications that run on the "internet of things" - marshaling remote devices to interact with the real world and provide a rich variety of ways to bring data to users about the world and give them the ability to control their world. .NET has some great APIs for doing these kinds of things.  At the end of the day, the interesting stuff is in the applications, not really in the development platform.

For web development, absolutely, client-side apps on the browser and on the backend have moved away from .NET - was it really ever the first choice?  Clearly, for many of the things I've been doing lately to integrate robotics, communications, sensors and number crunching applications on Windows, .NET (OK let's just admit C#) still has some legs. I'm pretty excited about mono for cross-platform and mobile applications.  Maybe there's still a place in "ALT" for pushing the envelope when it comes to .NET on other platforms.

I've enjoyed meeting lots of the ALT-net members and look forward to keeping in touch.  It would be nice if we could keep the conversation going, but things do change. Embrace it!

Regards,

Mike

CTO 

ATT Metrology.

[Roy Osherove]

I'm half and half c# and ruby. 

Also I'm currently looking for a new job in the north-jersey/NYC area or relocate to Bay Area if anyone knows anyone who could use my talents there!

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Thanks,

Roy Osherove

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[Ken Egozi]

There are certainly a lot of c# jobs around here

[Alejandro Miralles]

Well, I'm still doing .NET, but I guess we all agree that ALT became mainstream a while ago.

In addition to my C# work, I'm also doing some Ruby and quite lot of Javascript these days. I'm from Buenos Aires, and the very same thing it's happening around here. The .NET people got really quiet in the last couple of years while the Node.JS, Ruby and Javascript folks are still hacking around, organizing events, and so on...

 

We (ALT.NET movement) had a good run, but it was about time. Good luck and happy hacking!

 

Amiralles

http://amiralles.net

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[Ken Egozi]

During my microsoft tenure I was seeing some alt-y things. Had the chance to write a considerable amount of node.js, some Java, python and boo. And when on .NET I introduced and put to work some OSS such as Windsor and Lucene.NET into some massive web services that were code-managed in git repositories. So you could say that even within the msft giant the ALT is not so ALT anymore. 

As far as where I got to - my most recent gigs before joining microsoft were pretty exclusive non-msft - a lot of Rails on AWS, Java, and such. And in the business I started when leaving microsoft early this year we are using golang exclusively, (moving off of the initial MVP created in RoR), and hosting on Azure websites (yey bizpark). 

Per the value that an ALT.NET group can provide - the Israeli group that I started many years back is still alive and kicking these days, four years after I left it, and in this "new era" day and age. They are running lightning-talk nights, beer meetings etc every few months, showing off some latest and greatest stuff both on .net and otherwise. And the occasional mailing-list discussion on meta things (like how to be an efficient remote worker, good ways to hire talent, etc.) my point is that a community of driven people can do more than just "whining" about webforms/MsTest/wahtnot or offering alternatives. 

K

Ken Egozi.
http://kenegozi.com/

http://www.activegiver.com/