This essay is far from perfect. That said, when I first read this I was a Windows user and primarily a Windows desktop application developer, but I'd started to explore what was outside the Microsoft ecosystem by playing with things like Perl and Linux. Reading this document, along with the (far, far better) book The Pragmatic Programmer, helped open my eyes to the world beyond Microsoft.

All this to say: despite the negative comments here, this is worth your time to read.