When it comes to bashing Microsoft

"When it comes to bashing Microsoft, it seems that any old canard will do; facts are strictly optional." That's from Resorting to FUD Hurts the Alternatives to Microsoft, which reminds us that amazingly enough you really can stoop too low when casting mud at Microsoft.

Well, yeah, and it's silly to make up stuff when reality gives us so much to work with. My feeling mirrors Alice Roosevelt Longworth's : "If you don't have anything nice to say about [Microsoft].....come sit by me."

Look for the slver lining

But surely there are things to praise? For example, their recent free or low-cost training announcement. Oh sure, I could carp that they don't mention anything about teaching any Mac or Linux in those courses but those with a more measured view would correctly remind me that Microsoft still does hold a majority OS position. A rapidly slipping position that could use the kind of shoring up programs like this offer, yes. A position that just might not be dominant in a few short years, yes. But we can't expect Microsoft to actually contribute to its own demise, can we? No. Evil beasts will struggle to survive even when they know in their own hearts that the world would be a better place without them. Can we blame them for that?

No. Then we have that recent deal with RedHat on virtualization which, after saying a whole bunch of nonsense that would have even 5th graders snorting milk out their noses, ends up saying that neither RedHat nor Microsoft will play the buck passing game when their respective products won't play nice under the other guys VM. How nice for the lucky customer! Of course this just codifies the obvious: if you are running RedHat or Microsoft under VMware, that buck will be passed so fast you won't even know which pocket of yours they stuffed it back into. It WILL be in your pocket though. RedHat should know better than to make deals with the Devil against competitors - if they do manage to cripple VMware, Microsoft's history surely shows us what will happen next. Ooops, RedHat under Microsoft Virtual Server? Bad choice, Mr. Customer. Microsoft under RedHat? Well, gee, we'd LIKE to help, but..

But that's later. Right now we have to applaud this wonderful spirit of cooperation done for no other reason than to better serve mutual customers!

Oh, and damaging VMware? Collateral damage, surely. Farthest thing from their evil little beast mind.

Will we ever get it?

Someday, I really believe that economists are going to understand that Megacorps like Microsoft are a bad idea. They stifle innovation, destroy competition, create dangerous monocultures and cause undue influence on politicians. That's true everywhere, from agriculture to high tech. What's going to happen if Microsoft does start does start falling apart? Our politicians will be wailing that they are "too big to fail!" Too many thousands will lose their jobs, and we can't have battleships running on the operating systems of defunct companies! No, no, we must bail them out!

I think that will be when I move to Canada. No, their army probably runs on Windows too..