Hi there, I'm looking into going back to school online and getting an associates (or possibly bachelors...) in web design/development. The problem I'm running into atm, is that I use Ubuntu 7.10 and at least so far most of the programs seem to require windows. I have *no* desire to use windows ever again, so this is putting a bit of a damper on my plans. Does anyone know of any programs that allow you to use open-source applications for web development?

Or... any programs that get you a degree in like... open source devolpment?? I've tried to teach myself C off and on for years, with umm.. basicly no success. I did manage to build a couple (albiet crappy) websites in high school... but other than messing about with linux the past year I haven't done much... I'd love to actually be able to, you know, mess about with the source code and fix bugs and things Probably I'm just dreaming... but... who knows

I'm in the same boat you are, mostly. I have a very hard time teaching myself coding. I'm not cut out for it. I'll start reading a book on a language, play with it a bit, but then my mind wanders.

I start to wonder how and why they do certain things in the language, but they aren't explained in the book. I then lose interest in it.

Being serious as a web developer will require you to accept the fact that the majority of users view sites with Windows, and indeed Internet Explorer. Most people do not even know what linux or Ubuntu are. Realistically you need a windows system, or at least a dual boot system, so that you can test your designs to be sure that the windows users are seeing what you intend them to see. Actually, in any kind of IT work, unless you intend to work servicing a specific section of the computing community (e.g. linux users only) then you need to put aside any OS prejudice and accept that people have different wants, needs and tastes that maybe different to your own.

I can accept I'm going to have to test things in windows, but I really don't have any desire to use it for school. After emailing back and forth with some of these schools, their official line seems to be "we don't actually require windows, we just don't support anything else, so if something doesn't work, or you have problems, your screwed"

So, I'm looking at Bakers College Online's associate in computer programming degree It looks pretty good, to me... atm I'm playing around with C again, and its going OK so far... we'll see ;D

From my experience it's down to practice, practice and more practice, and lots of reading. Then, if you also enjoy what you are doing, you will succeed. I do think its a shame that whatever requirement (or dependence or whatever it is) they have for windows exists. There seems no need for it to me - online learning should be done with normal Internet protocols such as http, ftp, email etc. Learning institutions should know better than to do otherwise, if they've done something like build their online learning tools dependent on activex, so they only work in IE, I would find another school as that is just stupid, and the last thing you want in a school is stupidity :-)

I learned html and css by looking at the source code of web sites to see how they did something, and then playing around with it, and reading stuff on the web. You're probably interested in getting deeper into it.

I suspect, when you go looking for a job in web design, the majority of employers will want you to be trained and experienced on certain industry standard software, which will likely be crap that runs on windows, that produces crappy code, designed around Internet Explorer's crappy lack of adherence to standards.