User Reviews
GCC, the GNU Compiler Collection: GCC, what else?
by TheAlienist
If you need to compile C/C++ then save yourself some headaches AND money. Skip the commerical compilers and use GCC. The amount of R&D on this project surpasses that of the commercial alternatives (yeah, including Microsoft C/C++ Compiler).
22 of 25 users found the following review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No
PostgreSQL Database Server: Amazing Database
by TheAlienist
In all my years of open source development, postgresql stands out as the most amazing open source product I've used. It's full-featured and rock solid. Even its documentation is better than commercial databases.
Imho, the whole MySQL vs Postgres debate is pointless. Postgres is a better database in all aspects that matter (ie: except for a few contrived ISAM-based performance tests).
Some minor gripes include overcomplicated
16 of 16 users found the following review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No
Vim: The swiss army-knife of text-editing
by TheAlienist
If you spend a lot of time writing and/or editing text (code, scripts, config files, etc...), then you owe it to yourself to invest in learning vim or emacs.
I chose Vim because I learned it in college. I can't honestly say it's better than emacs, but the bottom line is that any of these 2 editors can drastically improve your productivity.
Sure those flashy IDE's look impressive with the doo-hickeys all over the place. But the
10 of 11 users found the following review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No
TYPO3: Very powerful but slightly aged
by TheAlienist
Disclaimer: I haven't played with Typo3 in at least a year. However I'd be surprised if it changed that significantly.
Typo3 is an insanely powerful CMS system. In fact, it's so powerful, it should be put in a category in itself. Beyond managing content it also comes with a very powerful administrative website - think of it as a built-in IDE. You can extend plugins easily or simply define your own. These plugins can include custom data
6 of 6 users found the following review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No
Mozilla Firefox: Good, but somewhat tired
by TheAlienist
I use Firefox 2.01 on a Mac. The whole tabbed browsing features was great 2 years ago, but all browsers do that now. So what's so great about firefox now? Plugins. If you're a web developer there's really no other way to go.
As for complaints, it's slow and a resource hog. I know it's better on Windows, but on a Mac both Safari and Opera feel much faster.
Don't get me wrong - there's not that much to complain about. I just wish they would evolve web browsing beyond tabs and plugins.
17 of 31 users found the following review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No
Trac: Just what the doctor ordered
by TheAlienist
Say goodbye to overbloated crap like MS Project. Trac provides just enough project management as you should need. In other words, they don't impose or require a bunch of un-natural hand-holding and busy work like "what percentage of this feature are you done with?". I hate those kinds of apps. No real developer tracks their "sprints" or features on an hourly basis.
Trac integrates milestones, wiki, code repository and defects better
5 of 7 users found the following review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No
lighttpd: Simple Yet Effective
by TheAlienist
My biggest compliment is that the config file is reasonably simple. No more incomprehensible Apache config file bs... yay! It's a stable server with decent scalability. No complaints.
4 of 6 users found the following review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No
Apache Ant: Better than Make!
by TheAlienist
Did I fool you?
Writing huge XML files to represent complex sequences of tasks is slightly more enjoyable than root canal. It must be said that most large projects end up with some type of build script and Ant fills this need, but the real gem of my advice is to try to reject it as long as possible.
4 of 6 users found the following review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No
CVS: Concurrent Versions System: Just good enough
by TheAlienist
CVS is the grand-daddy of source versioning systems and it shows. It's got all of the charm and reliability of a '88 ford taurus. It aint pretty, but by gosh it's everywhere!
What's there to like? It mostly works. Some projects have 10+ years of history using it. However, it has some pretty basic problems too. Tagging and branching is not only hard, it's slow and cumbersome.
Even with the massive adoption it's had, it's
4 of 8 users found the following review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No
VirtueDesktops: At least until Tiger is out...
by TheAlienist
OS X 10.5 will have built-in virtual desktops. Until then, VirtueDesktops does the trick. I agree that the config is a little more complicated than it needs ( I don't conceptualize my virtual desktop in a 2D space - just 1D). However I thought that was just a nit - otherwise I found it worked well.