We spent last week in unfamiliar territory. Typically, we venture out to events with a pretty strong Microsoft presence (TechEd, VS Live, etc.), but last week, we attended the SD Best Practices Expo in Boston. Lots of .NET developers, but also a lot of Java guys. We pretty much showed up with our most agnostic foot forward. Plenty of patterns, including our official tech session, and some extreme programming, including a test-driven development BOF run by Ward Cunningham. We had a chance to sit down with the editors of some of the CMP magazines (Dr. Dobbs, Software Development), which was a great opportunity to expose them to materials that they were really aware were coming from Microsoft.
The interesting thing about this show was, unlike Microsoft shows where we are patterns & practices, this time we were Microsoft period. We were the only people from Microsoft with a booth and practically the only people from Microsoft at all. The fact that we were there surprised a lot of people. Most people assumed we were from the Waltham office, so telling them we were from Redmond definitely surprised people. I actually really liked this scenario—I felt more confident that people would leave the conference taking away our message (as opposed to the MS events where the average attendee is inundated with so many flashy messages that it is easy for us to get squeezed). I actually anticipated this and realized that our role with patterns gave us a unique opportunity to lead this effort. But I also anticipated some anti-Microsoft sentiment. As it turns out, the people that didn’t care for us didn’t bother coming up to our booth. Well, almost none of them…
Just as the booth was closing, I had an interesting conversation with a gentleman that didn’t care too much for Microsoft. It was at the end of an 8-hour shift for me after a red-eye the previous day, so I was pretty much exhausted. But hey, I figured it would be great to go out by having a discussion to defend Microsoft. Now, let me be honest: when I am on the clock for Microsoft, I really feel like an ambassador—just like I did for Intel and when I attended B-School. My behavior reflects on my affiliation and I am usually cognizant of that. But I knew where this was headed and decided to loosen my diplomacy to have a good spirited discussion with the gentleman (“open and respectful” is the term they use inside Microsoft). So once he said, “do you know what the problem with Microsoft is?” Ahh, the game was on. Here's three of the threads we had…
His responses at the end of each of these threads of discussion was "I wasn't aware of those facts. I will take your word for it. I will research it further." As he left, we shook hands and I offered an honest piece of advice: “don’t default on vilifying Microsoft and don’t expect to do anything that doesn’t make business sense”. Every misconception was based on an assumption that we were out to fleece the customer. Yes, we are out to make a dollar—so are Sun, IBM, BEA, and anyone else in the business. That’s why it’s called a business. We've got shareholders that expect us to keep churning out revenues and profits (just like those guys). But we care about our customers just as much as they care about theirs. The difference is, we don't do it with open souce. It seems like attaching yourself to open source absolves you of all ills of capitalism in the eyes of some developers. Just because you are a part of the movement does not mean you inherit all of Richard Stallman's righteousness. I can hear their mantra now: “We’re not in it for a profit like Microsoft. We just love you developer guys and are willing to do whatever you want at any cost!”
Wonder what Wall Street would think about that strategy?
{Garbage - Garbage}