ALT.NET - Alternative tools and approaches to mainstream .NET
There's starting to be a lot of talk lately about working in an alternative way than the "mainstream" prescribed ways which most .NET and MS developers use in their day to day work. I'm still working out on my own what does it mean, and the difference facets in this concept, but one thing is for sure - there is *something* out there which people are getting a hold of, and MS seems to be missing great deals of it. here are some points(Some overlaps, for sure):
Update and clarifications:
- I don't necessarily agree with the list here. It is what I see in other people. I'll post my thoughts on this later.
- Some items are grouped and compared not on a technical level, but on a logical or categorized level. For example, comparing open source, SourceForge to Application Blocks and codeplex -the two are both open source in one way or another, but the ones on the right are MS-oriented, the left are not. So the right isn't necessarily the inverse of what's on the left. It may just as well be the same idea. Just seems to me it is less "hot" than the one on the right.
| Hot | Not |
| Castle, ActiveRecord, NHibernate |
DataSets, Dataset Designer, Entity Framework, MS Application Blocks |
| MVC,NUnit,MonoRail | Web Forms, SCSF, VSTS, MSTest |
| XP, TDD, Scrum | MSF Agile, MSF For CMMI |
| Evolutionary Design and Development | Big Design Up Front |
| Ruby + IronRuby, Python + IronPyton, DLR, Silverlight(?) | ? |
| OR\M (NHibernate, LLBLGen etc..) | DLinq, Data Access Block, DataSets, Plain ADO. NET |
| Open Source (Mono, SourceForge) | Application Blocks, CodePlex |
| MVC and MVP (RoR, MonoRail..) | Web Forms, CAB, Smart Client Factory |
| CVS, SVN | VSS, VSTS Source Control |
| Build Automation and CI (CI Factory, NAnt, FinalBuilder, CruiseControl..) |
Team Build |
| TDD and Unit Testing NUnit, MbUnit, RhinoMocks, NMock, TypeMock |
MSTest for unit testing, VSTS |
| Subtext, DasBlog, WordPress, TypePad, Blogger, FeedBurner | Microsoft MSN Spaces, Community Server(?) |
| Simplicity in Design | P&P |
| Working at Google | Working at MS |
| Google Gears | Smart Client, MS Ajax |
| .NET 3.X (WF, WPF. Silverlight) | .NET 2.0 |
| DI, IoC, Spring for .NET | Object Builder |
| Conferences: OSCon, RubyCon, Code Camps, DevTeach.. |
VSLive, TechEd, DevConnections.. |
Am I missing something?