Yes, but how do you decide which tribe to join initially?
This argument bothers me because it implies that somehow people are not being objective. Well, the truth is you'll never get anything done unless you form opinions and move forward, but that doesn't mean they don't have good reasons besides peer influence.
Personally I have never programmed on a Microsoft stack because I don't want to be hostage to the whims and resource allocation of one company. With open source frameworks I know that the project quality is a goal unto itself, whereas a Microsoft project lives or dies by its ability to contribute to their larger strategy. With open source the worst case scenario is that the community dies and I have to fix problems myself. Unless there's a compelling reason to go with a proprietary stack (eg. access to the iOS App Store or Windows) then I'll go open source every time, and not just because my friends do.
This argument bothers me because it implies that somehow people are not being objective. Well, the truth is you'll never get anything done unless you form opinions and move forward, but that doesn't mean they don't have good reasons besides peer influence.
Personally I have never programmed on a Microsoft stack because I don't want to be hostage to the whims and resource allocation of one company. With open source frameworks I know that the project quality is a goal unto itself, whereas a Microsoft project lives or dies by its ability to contribute to their larger strategy. With open source the worst case scenario is that the community dies and I have to fix problems myself. Unless there's a compelling reason to go with a proprietary stack (eg. access to the iOS App Store or Windows) then I'll go open source every time, and not just because my friends do.