About Unix Programming - Making a career desision

Are there any people here that are programming on any unix clones proffesionaly? ie making a living out of it?

I will describe my problem to you and hope for answers, espesially from professional programmers.

i've now got to a point where i have to make choises. ansi c and c++ is cool, but there is more needed. most programs now have gui, network support, etc. ok i know many people dont like it but still most software houses make gui apps. knowing ansi c and c++ seems to be just a basis. so, i have to make some tough choises.

i like unix programming a lot (i'm very beginner on it) and i'm also beginner in win32 and mfc. i dont have the time to learn all of them. i got to pick one and go on.

Idealy, i'd like to do unix programming and learn sockets, threds and the QT gui toolkit. however, it seems free unises are based on open-source and valuntere work and there are not too many companies that make and sell unix apps. Well, there are some but definitely not as many as these making win apps.

There is much work for setting up networks, mail servers etc based on linux and other clones, but not too much programming in c. it seems that most prople do it as hobby as most projects are open-source and anyone can add to it etc.

now, dont get me wrong, i like the open-source idea, but if i choose to go the unix way, i'm gonna have to:

1. make a time investment to learn (may be long)
2. get a job in unix c programming that i can work and develop as a programmer and also pay the bills.

The latter seems a bit difficult.

On the other hand, vcc and mfc (and vb for guis) is a quite big subject on its own. still, companies specialise it even more asking for vcc programmers for graphics, for network apps, for databases, for dcom and com+ etc. additionaly to this, there is some vibe of uncertainty about mfc and vcc as noone knows what acceptance .net will have. this is where c# comes into play as well making the thing even more confusing.

The point is that if i wanna become any good on something i gotta deside and forget the others. i just cant go on doing a bit of unix, a bit of mfc, a bit of qt, a bit of ado, a bit of stl etc.

any help, advice, oppinions would be most wellcomed

thanks and sorry for long post...


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