Now that it appears the anti-trust problems are more bark than bite (600+mil from EU), it is time to start thinking about how to spend that enormous cash hoarde that Redmond has been saving up. Last I heard it was in the neighborhood of 50 billion. Besides buying a few hundred small countries, someone up there has got to figure out what to do with all that money! I thought I would float a few proposals to get the ball rolling.
Buy Macromedia - They are getting increasingly innovative in their products and are starting to become a real player in the rich internet applications space which is a key to the MSFT forward strategy.
Invest in broadband - Find a way to make broadband access more widely available, preferably some sort of long range wireless play that can bring IP to remote/moving objects, the bright MSFT future is only a dream without widespread IP availability beyond the home and office.
Give away Dev tools - I don’t mind paying for them and with MSDN subscriptions you practically are giving it away, but; if the MSFT strategy for widespread adoption is to target developers you need to show some love and just start giving away Visual Studio. NO one can argue that VS.NET is not the cream of the crop dev tool; problem is that many people might avoid it for the fact of it's cost. Make it free and you might pick up a few hundred thousand loyal devs.
Finally - give some to me, I will spend it wisely ;)
The EU this week decided that Microsoft should have to pay big time for living up to their motto of making peoples lives better.
Frans is making the argument that, “It's not about the program, it's about what the program will establish over time”. OK, let me get this straight, Microsoft is not being punished for what they have done, but instead for what they might do in the future?
I have to say that I can forgive Frans (who I believe does not live in the USA) because he has been obviously raised to believe that government should protect the people from “the man” but we Americans who live under auspices of competitive capitalism understand the simple principle of market based decision making. Ultimately, the market (the people) will decide what is best and the marketers (Msft, Real) will adapt to embrace the emerging market.
I have to say that I am troubled by the direction of these types of decisions, the European Union who is becoming increasingly socialist in their tendencies and in effect telling me that if I make good strategic decisions that one day might give me an upper hand on the market that I should think twice about such a thing because they will sue me and restrict my freedom in the market.
This is a slap in the face to a company who has done great things for Europe and the entire world. Maybe Microsoft should not sell their products in Europe? Who would that hurt more, Microsoft or Europe? I think Microsoft would be fine. Europe can erect all the socialist protectionist barriers it wants, stick it to “the man” and punish people who are successful, we tried that for a few years here in America and our economy nearly collapsed. So Europe will roll headlong across the socialist highway which is nothing more than a bridge to communism and then; America will come to the rescue again.
OK, I can tell you are fuming mad, pissed beyond belief because my radical ideology is so completely out of whack, insane even…I might agree with you, but what I ask, is more troubling? The idea that Europe is in trouble because of theories like Frans’ or the idea that we should punish people for something they might do…?
I want to add my voice to the rising level of noise, this delay is frustrating.
Most of us out here in the real world putting together line of business apps that are the bread and butter of .NET are dying for the features of Framework 2.0, and while the things in Yukon are great and very exciting they are not earth shattering enough to help me convince my clients to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on new proc licenses so that I can get a database platform that hosts the CLR. I could care less if they are released together, in my mind that creates information overload; too much to learn in a flood of releases.
TELL REDMOND HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS! WE ARE THEIR KEY CUSTOMERS, THEY WILL LISTEN.