[Sorry if my original posting of this was a little unreadable... My blog writer evidently didn't make the transit to the new OS all that well (see below for what I'm talking about)]
I've had an interesting couple of months as a developer and a "Microsoft guy" (possibly "MS fanboy"). What pray tell could have done this... well, I have a friendship with Mike Gunderloy who back in January announced that he was moving away from the MS stack (entirely). At the time I was working with Mike on some writing and was somewhat privy to his feelings.
Here's the summary. Mike feels that MS has recently made some power grabs that are actually dangerous for the industry on the whole (both with the MS Office 2007 Ribbon and in the Vista EULA). Whether he knows it or not Mike is an influence in my programming life (he's helped in a number ways during my whole transition to an Indy programmer... BTW, I'm always interested in new work).
Anyway, I've really been considering where Mike is at. He's right there have been some things that are alarming. Do I think Joe average programmer (or Product Manager) is working to do this? Heck no! I think ScottGu is the man and he's taken development in my opinion to new heights, but MS legal is a different thing altogether.
So I find myself at a juncture where I'm pursuing a number of MS technologies (and possibly an MVP, but who knows it that will ever happen), and yet I'm concerned about some of this stuff.
My particulars are that I really think the Office 2007 Ribbon UI License sounds fishy to me and the DRM elements that were announced in the EULA were also a little concerning (at least the lawyers description of them).
Right now I sound a lot like any number of SlashDotters.
On Friday, I went to the DotNet University in Tampa where I hooked up with my blog father Joe Healy. He's deeply concerned about something else that is touching my life... MS is no problem to him, but that's because he's a 'softie... He's the Dev Evangelist for this area (South East of the US, I believe).
The Other Evil Empire
Anyway he got me thinking about that other large corporation... the one that almost everyone who criticizes MS is OK with. You've probably heard some conspiracy theories about them as well. In case you haven't guess the other corporation is Google. It's almost an unconscious thought to type google before searching... turning the name of the company into a verb... or better yet, how about letting them house your data (and then market to you)... sure you know that's happening...
I know you're probably thinking "come on Jay.. Google???" They give everything away. They're nice. They'd never do anything shady...
Oh really? How about the whole book fiasco where Google said "We're putting books on line and we don't care what you think."
My point is that Google is not above doing something shady. So does that mean that I think you should avoid Google and MS or just MS or just Google?
I think you should look at the situation and realize that there are marketers and lawyers behind this company's efforts (all company's efforts... including mine). You should then minimize your own heavy reliance on any of them (or at least realize that you are consciously jumping into bed with that company).
So... I installed Vista on my laptop this weekend and I've been running Office 2007 for about a month. I watch MS, and am careful of what I'm supporting... I'm vocal about what I think is not right. I'll probably minimize my support of them in some ways (although I'm less worried about them since I read the EULA and didn't see any mention of DRM).
I'm also going to continue to use Gmail, but will work at trying to cut the ties on some of the other google products I use including search. In fact I decided to not switch my IE7 over to using Google Search by default.
I have to have both companies in my life right now (and I believe I will for the foreseeable future), but I'm going to do my best to minimize their total impact.
I am in fact still an "MS fanboy" and will continue to be because I know what MS is doing; MS also has so many Gov't agencies watching them so closely it's not even funny... Google on the other hand has no one watching what they are doing (and no one really knows).
Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Google, Evil Empire