Just some feedback on episode 212, pick and choose.

1. Java EE: As a new programmer I didn't even know Java EE existed until I had a CS class where we used it. That's because you don't see it get recommended anywhere on the web or even mentioned most of the time. It sounds very enterprisy when you first hear about it but once you actually learn Java EE it makes your life easier. You can bang up a REST service in a few minutes. And there is so much more to it but you can pick and choose the components (EJBs, fully transactional behaviour, SOAP etc). You can either deploy on full application server like WildFly (open source by RedHat JBOSS) or go the microservices route which is becoming popular and just deploy in Docker containers. In regard to Java specifically, let's not forget you have access to thousands of Java libraries which exist for every single problem ever and you have a nice Maven/Gradle dependency resolution. Java already has all these problems solved for years now.

Oracle dropping Java EE makes zero sense, unless they want to close it off and keep it for themselves somehow.

2. On the hardware front I just bought a full specced Entroware Apollo. Had to go through some hoops because they only ship in UK but it should arrive in ~10 days. I plan to run Linux on it obviously, leaning towards Fedora (KDE or XFCE, Gnome feels too much dumbed down after using it for a year). I like Fedora because of fast release cycle but still being stable. The laptop was recommended by Chris on LAS review so if it's not as good as the second coming of Christ I'm coming to his house for a "talk". :)

3. Non 212 related: I feel like frontend development is out of control these days. You need like 10 different tools installed, 5 different JS frameworks and 3 different JS package managers just to create a basic Angular app. Then you need to add 30+ JS dependencies to npm and there is a 50% chance some package will break tomorrow because you use minor version update notation. Let's not forget the fact that every single JS library turns out to have some breaking bug in it which makes your life miserable. And what's up with Angular 2? It's the worst thing.. you either go and use beta software for a new project or stick with the old one which will be most definitely deprecated in a few years. I feel like using any version of Angular at this moment is a mistake. Any thoughts on all this?