http://www.teach42.com/2006/01/24/half-a-billion-open-source-programmers/ Education and Technology by Steve Dembo Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:48:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 http://www.teach42.com/2006/01/24/half-a-billion-open-source-programmers/#comment-38284 Alfred Thompson Tue, 24 Jan 2006 15:56:03 +0000 http://www.teach42.com/2006/01/24/half-a-billion-open-source-programmers/#comment-38284 So you know that a Windows XP system with the .NET Foundation update (a free download and installed on tens of millions of computers already) includes compilers for Visual Basic .NET, C/C++, C# and J# right? So the ability to write programs for Windows is already out there. Visual Basic .NET is a lot easier for new programmers to learn on their own than C in my opinion. Also the Visual Studio Express editions are very powerful, easy to use IDEs and, yes, free. So you know that a Windows XP system with the .NET Foundation update (a free download and installed on tens of millions of computers already) includes compilers for Visual Basic .NET, C/C++, C# and J# right? So the ability to write programs for Windows is already out there. Visual Basic .NET is a lot easier for new programmers to learn on their own than C in my opinion. Also the Visual Studio Express editions are very powerful, easy to use IDEs and, yes, free.

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