Sorry for (a) responding a few weeks late and (b) top posting.
I guess I have to thank Dan, because DOL hired me to join their Platform team last March, so I
suspect I got the position he refused. While I knew DOL was in for a rough time, I thought it
was worth the effort (considering I had just been laid off from my previous job). From what I
was told during the interview, we would make whatever a customer paid for available. I knew
that my primary project would be to make the CE stuff (which I hate, but left on my resume
anyway), and it was. However, I was not forced to run Windows on my desktop -- I did, but only
because I was used to using Cygwin and the like. In fact, no one cared what I ran. I was told
I could dual boot or use spare PCs however I wanted (i.e, install whatever OS) to maximize my
productivity. For the record, I got to work on a C/assembly embedded product which used TCP/IP
as an interface (i.e., not Windows-dependent) and got to propose a free-Unix-based network
simulator as well the CE project, so I consider that DOL met their promise that I would not work
only on Windows. If they had lasted, building that would have been awesome.
Despite how it ended, I don't regret taking the job. It was a known risk, but in this economy,
every job is.
--Alaric
12/20/02 2:09:04 PM, Daniel Wolstenholme <
d_wolstenholme@yahoo.com> wrote:
>I interviewed there in early 2002, but the impression I got as
>an interviewee was that it was an all-MS shop as I never saw
>Linux anywhere, and when I asked about it I was only told about
>its use in target systems. All the desktop systems I saw were
>MS, and I was told that all the host systems were MS using
>Citrix Metaframe. My resume intentionally had no mention of any
>MS products on it, but the people in my interview seemed more
>interested in whether I'd be willing to learn WinCE than
>anything Unix-based. I was told that customers wanted Windows
>and .NET, so that's where they were going. Considering that the
>Dice.com ad for the position seemed very pro-Linux, I felt
>rather deceived at the interview when I found out how big a
>priority Windows was. This was one of the main reasons I had
>for rejecting the job.
>
>The other was that they had burned through 3 rounds of funding
>without becoming profitable, and told me that they only had
>enough funding to last till November. Guess the 4th round
>didn't come through.
>
>The unsubscription thing turned out to be an issue with how I
>receive my email (the system automatically unsubscribed me) and
>is fixed now.
>
>Dan
>
>David Mandela wrote:
>>Sorry Daniel,
>>You are incorrect about DevelopOnline not being a Linux shop.
>>Most of our infrastructure was Linux. Now that was not the case
>>when I started there in 2000 but by mid 2001 most of the MS
>>servers had been but away.
>
>>Yes the marketing folks thought that the .NET push might help
>>save the company but the .NET push was only a marketing ploy.
>>We never switched back to a MS shop.
>
>>We did have some MS units, could not avoid it, but even in the
>>.NET site the most of the entire back end was run with Linux
>>and a bit of Novel. The only place we ran MS products was where
>>my Sysadmins could not find/install a suitable OS replacement.
>
>>At the desktop level we had mostly Windows desktops, though we
>>did have a mix of Macintosh, Linux, and FreeBSD desktops too.
>>Those were in the development area though none of the executive
>>staff or marketing staff used anything but Windows (with the
>>exception of myself, I've been running Linux as a desktop since
>>1997).
>
>>Daniel I don't actually remember you though, perhaps Ron the IT
>>manager interviewed you. Could be once I hired Ron I stepped
>>back from most of the interview process.
>
>>As to your unsubscription I doubt anyone did that, at least in
>>relation to anything you said about DOL. I know I can't and if
>>I could I would not bother, I am equally sure that Hans could
>>not be bothered either. DOL was a good idea that died too soon,
>>someone will do it again when there is money to do it with.
>
>>Cheers,
>>David Mandala
>>Ext. CTO/VP Engineering DevelopOnline.com
>
>
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