steven n fettig's Jitterin' Thoughts

     I have a new programmer coming to work for the company I am at (he is actually an old friend who I have worked with often in the past) and we will be working on setting up a new manufacturing database. The prerequisite for this new database is that it has to run on Open Source software. Another requirement I have thought hard about was whether or not it will be web based - i.e. the user front end should be a web interface. It will... That way, if we continue to struggle with software costs from Company XYZ, then we can choose to move to another OS and use that default web interface/browser.
     So, here we are working on finishing a project that was started over two years ago (it is a long story why it never was finished) and we have chosen RedHat 8.0 as the development platform - 1) Because he is familiar with Linux and 2) he needs to work with a graphical interface (gui) and I am not willing to learn how to set up Xfree86 on the Via Eden machine we will be using. As I write this, our machine is going through the installation process... we'll see how things go (and you will be the second to know - I'll be the first).
     I am somewhat reluctant to use RedHat again - after the problems that I had with it originally, but my philosophy is to let programmers use what they are most comfortable with. I can't imagine me being forced to work (regularly) on a non OS X machine. I like the chewy interface of OS X and I like being able to hook up my Firewire Hard Drive, DVD drive, etc. without a hitch. The most important aspect of this project is that we stick with Open Source software or software that is well known for inter-OS-operability (like Java). My personal preference would be to have most of this built in perl, but since he is primarily a Java programmer, that's what we will be using.
     Here's to hoping for a more successful run with RedHat!