What kind of Developers do MS and Apple Attract?

[maclamb]

Just an idle thought...

Would you agree that Microsoft attracts programmers who are not as good (defined: intelligent, creative, caring, "responsible"), as Apple? If I was a bright, creative, resourceful programmer I would want to work for Apple more than MS...
And, if there IS any truth to this, then it may be a self-fulfilling prophesy/downward spiral....

your thoughts :cool:

[jsw]

I think MS programmers are as good as Mac programmers, if you look at the top tier. The low-end programmers tend not to be as good simply because it's so much easier to afford a system to program with and so more people do it as a hobby. Now that the mini's out there, I'm sure a bunch more bad Mac apps will appear. ;)

[jeremy.king]

Google hires the best developers, Apple and MS are left to pick from the rest ;)

[Thom_Edwards]

i would not agree that apple *programmers* are better than those at ms. perhaps the software *developers* at apple are better, though.

not to get too technical or precise, but being a programmer and developer are not (necessarily) the same thing. a developer might design the user interface (which does not only include the graphical user interface), define use cases, etc. while a programmer would write the code. that being said, programming definitely takes creative thought and there are some programmers that are craftier/trickier/better than others, but usually that creativity does not go into the design of software.

i've seen situations where the lead developer hasn't written a single line of code. he's got the great programmers for that. not that the lead developer couldn't write it, he's just got other people for that.

my friend has his m.s. in computer science and is working at uc-berkley. he's a great programmer, optimizing code for nuclear simulations. sounds exciting, eh? well, he feels like it's a boring job because he doesn't get to do any of the design of the simulations--he only codes them...

i consider myself a decent programmer, maybe not even that good. who knows? anyway, programming is no longer in my job description. i've been promoted to a management role where, among many other things, i'm more involved in the development of our software. i kind of miss programming.....

all that being said, i would think you'd have to be a super-top level programmer to get on at either ms or apple, and both jobs would be rewarding, challenging, and wear you out all at the same time. i'm not saying you aren't that good (how would i know), but it would be tough...

[jeremy.king]

i would not agree that apple *programmers* are better than those at ms. perhaps the software *developers* at apple are better, though.

not to get too technical or precise, but being a programmer and developer are not (necessarily) the same thing. a developer might design the user interface (which does not only include the graphical user interface), define use cases, etc. while a programmer would write the code. that being said, programming definitely takes creative thought and there are some programmers that are craftier/trickier/better than others, but usually that creativity does not go into the design of software.

i've seen situations where the lead developer hasn't written a single line of code. he's got the great programmers for that. not that the lead developer couldn't write it, he's just got other people for that.

my friend has his m.s. in computer science and is working at uc-berkley. he's a great programmer, optimizing code for nuclear simulations. sounds exciting, eh? well, he feels like it's a boring job because he doesn't get to do any of the design of the simulations--he only codes them...

i consider myself a decent programmer, maybe not even that good. who knows? anyway, programming is no longer in my job description. i've been promoted to a management role where, among many other things, i'm more involved in the development of our software. i kind of miss programming.....

all that being said, i would think you'd have to be a super-top level programmer to get on at either ms or apple, and both jobs would be rewarding, challenging, and wear you out all at the same time. i'm not saying you aren't that good (how would i know), but it would be tough...

interesting.

In my experience, developers are programmers who don't want to be pigeon-holed or stereotyped by the title "programmer"

People who don't write code are called architects and designers.

my $.02