Why Microsoft Should Hire Miguel

With all the great thinking coming from Miguel de Icaza, it is no wonder that Don Box is trying to get him to jump the fence. What makes Miguel so dangerous is that first and foremost, he is a brilliant guy. However, perhaps even more important is the fact that he really truely understands and buys into the same type of thinking that has gotten Microsoft to where they are today. Unlike many of the intelligent people in the Linux community, he believes that components are vastly superior to pipes, he believes that managed languages are the only way to stay competitive in the coming years, he believes that Linux development is way to costly, etc. If his crusade is successful, Miguel will have done far more to give Linux a leg up in the coming years than Linus Torvalds and Richard Stallman combined. My advice to Microsoft: “hire him before he succeeds, or face the consequences.”

5 Comments

  • I think he is too smart and has ambitions too. He could not be up there with Linus and Stallman if he were to come in Redmond. He'd probably refuse any kind of offer from Microsoft anyway, and he'd probably do the right thing on many levels by sticking with Linux.

  • Everyone has a price :-).

  • I can only imagine him joining MS the day he gets fed up with all the bashing he recieves at the hands of so many OSS/Linux enthusiasts. If I were him, I'd move to MS just so the flames would at least have SOME merit :-)

  • Surely Novell just gave him a really good deal...

  • I agree. Maybe he could convince MS that their current practices are out-of-date and getting them nowhere. Instead of trying to squash Linux, they could put him on the effort to get MS applications working on Linux. I still think people would pay for applications, no matter the OS, if they are better applications than their counterparts.



    This build a moat around Windows philosophy that MS is pursuing (i.e., make the moat bigger by adding more and more applications to the OS itself) is a dead end. It may buy them the next round of OS, but it doesn't buy long term success.



    I wish MS would get back to their original philosophy which was simple "A computer on every desk and in ever home." Software is too expensive (when compared to hardware). Software is too complex. Let's get back to basics and pursue the original dream. The challenge to MS is how do you provide a computer in the home of a third world country when the cost of the basic OS is more than the person makes in one or more years.



    The question to ask is why was Bill's original goal important in the first place? I don't believe Bill's goal had anything about making him the richest man in the world. The problem is he is now acting like the richest man, instead of that college dropout that enjoyed having processing capability in his own hands instead of having to buy it from some timesharing organization. Why was it important to pursue Personal Computers? Bill needs to search back to the original intent. Maybe he should just give away all the money (to fight AIDS in Africa or some other noble cause) and try to repeat the success again. He is smart enough and young enough to do it again.



    This is why MS should hire Miguel, is because he has the same fire and drive that a young Bill Gates once had. The passion isn't for becoming rich. The passion is for something much more. The passion is for something MS has forgotten about.



    Just my two cents.

    TC

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