In his recent post on Configuring the Stack, Jeff Atwood discusses the frustration that comes with installing a complete development environment. 

I'm having a hard time seeing how Microsoft's commercial stack is any easier to configure than the alternative open source stacks these days. Either the open source stuff has gotten a lot more streamlined and mature, or the Microsoft stuff is somehow devolving into complexity. I'm not sure which it is, exactly, but the argument that choosing a commercial development stack saves you time rings more and more hollow over time.

You can read through the comments and see that many people have jumped at the opportunity to bash Microsoft and espouse the virtues of the competing open source offerings.  What I think that Jeff and some of his readers are missing is that his list of tools is an entire stack and once installed is in a useable state requiring almost no additional configuration in order to begin development.  To equal what Jeff has installed you would need:  A compiler (for 4 languages - I'll be generous and let you pick any four compilers for your favorite languages), a code editor, a web server, a database, unit test framework, load testing framework, functional web test framework, a web framework (like Struts or RoR), a version control client, a bug tracker client (if you use a web-based bug tracker then your browser counts), a db comparison/diff tool, a db query tool, a report writer and a UML diagramming tool.  I know that there is a lot more features that I am glossing over, but to think that Emacs represents an entire "stack" or that GCC is somehow equivalent to VS.Net (any edition), as suggested by some of the comments, is pure fantasy.

I lived in the Java OS world for several years and it is no different.  You install Eclipse, Java SE, J2EE, JBOSS, Spring, Struts, a db of Choice, junit, an svn client and whatever you are using for bug tracking.  This is just the installation.  Then you have to actually go through and manually edit several different configuration files.  At that point I would consider that you have a large part of what Jeff has installed.  You might still need to install a diagramming tool, a reporting tool, a few more db tools and some additional testing tools.  Where I think that Microsoft excels is that getting all of those tools to work together is relatively simple.  The same is not true in other environments.  While the Java world is getting better with the rise of Eclipse and the domination of JBOSS, you still often end up with a patchwork of tools and frameworks that are needed for developing the advanced systems that are currently de rigueur in the desktop and web worlds.  If you look at other environments like Python, PHP, or Ruby you still have all of those same issues, except that many of the tools are not nearly as mature as Eclipse or Visual Studio.

Don't believe the hype, OS is no panacea.  We live in a complex computing world and build very complex applications.  We should expect that our development environments would reflect this reality. 

My bigger beef in this whole situation is that Windows has always had a stability problem such that every 12 to 18 months you are forced to re-pave your system just to get back to a re-useable state of existence.  If I could keep my Windows installation from rotting over time then I would gladly pay the installation price one time and be done with it.  However, it becomes hard to swallow having to set aside a couple of days every year or two just to refresh my whole system due to the crud that builds up in Windows over time.

With DotNetNuke 4.5.4 and 4.5.5 having recently been released, we are now well underway on the 4.6 release.  Unlike previous releases we actually started work on some elements of this release in parallel with 4.5.4 release testing.  What has not been decided until earlier this week was the full scope of the release and a target release date.  The exact feature set and release date is still subject to change.

Listed below are the enhancements and bug fixes planned for this release. 

Enhancements

• Authentication Providers (DNN-5933) - The authentication provider refactoring includes support for the following authentication providers:  OpenID, AD, Cardspace, DNN.  The LiveID provider has been tested and is waiting on Microsoft to go live with the new service.  The LDAP provider is still under discussion and may be included in this release although the more likely outcome is that it will be released as a regular upgrade through the Authentication Providers projects (formerly the AD Project).
• Universal Installer (DNN-5934)
• Config Merge API (DNN-5967)
• Skin Object Property Editor (DNN-5968)
• Human Friendly URL (DNN-5969) - This item is very tentative and may well slide into the next release due to time constraints.

Bug Fixes

• Host Portal Doesn't Work (DNN-5799)
• Child Portal Logout (DNN-4631)
• URLControls not independent when dynamically loaded (DNN-5786)
• User Page Permissions are not set correctly (DNN-5735)
• Min/Max settings filling cookie and causing logout (DNN-5252)
• Can't add profile property under host settings (DNN-5571)
• Newsletter replacement of domain name (DNN-4191)

NOTE:  Some of the listed bug fixes may have been fixed in previous releases and not marked as such in Gemini.  They are included here pending confirmation of their status.  Be advised that the final list of bug fixes will likely be much longer than this list depending on the availability of team members to address issues prior to the release date.

4.6 is scheduled to be released to Benefactors and the beta test group on August 17 with a final target public release date of September 14.  As usual, these dates are subject to change.