For the last five or so years I have thought of Microsoft as being the source of all things evil. It all started around the same time Windows XP was released and it was exploited so quickly with many different virii (plural of virus, spelling from my tenth grade biology teacher). When it was nearly impossible to run Windows without being infected by some sort of virus a geek tends to get a bad taste in their mouth.
After dealing with all of the junk on Windows for many years I finally decided to switch to Linux. I was soon engulfed with anti-Microsoft feelings. I saw what it was like to live with a system that you tweaked with because you wanted to, not because you had to. To me Microsoft was the massive empire that had to be taken down. I was pushing everyone to open source software, not because it was technically better, but because it was the right thing to use.
The problem with my thinking was that almost all companies use Microsoft on the desktop and server. I probably looked like a raging loony spouting my anti-Microsoft statements to anyone and everyone that would listen. Most of my points are still valid today when it comes to price and stability, but that does not mean Microsoft makes a bad product today. They did have a period where their products were less than ideal, but have drastically improved.
I’ve been watching Microsoft from afar for a long time now and as of the last year or so I have seen them change from the huge empire that tries to shut down all competition to acknowledging it and trying to cooperate. The best example is with Linux itself. For many years it was up to the Linux community to get their OS working with proprietary software from Microsoft. With deals such as the one with Novell, Microsoft is now selling SUSE Linux. They also are working to get them to communicate together.
Quite a bit of the Linux community sees the Novell/Microsoft transaction as a deal with the devil. I see it quite differently, Microsoft is no longer trying to shut down Linux. Instead they see Linux as another viable solution for a company and they still want their business. They do not want to limit their business to pure Microsoft shops. They are a smart company and are trying to get into the places that would have normally dropped Microsoft. It is just smart business and that is what Microsoft is, a business.
In a further step in the “correct” direction MS has started offering help to larger open source projects. One example of this is helping get Firefox working on Vista. They’ve even created a web page dedicated to Open Source.
In their quest to be more friendly to Open Source Microsoft has hired several large names in the OSS community. These people are working on making MS a much more friendly company to the Open Source community. They want to get all of the wonderful OSS projects working great under Windows.
I no longer think of Microsoft as the evil empire that I once did. They are very open today and are trying to work with the Open Source communities. I do see this is a business solution for them to make more money, but almost all of the lead Linux Kernel developers got paid for their work. Why should working at Microsoft be any different than working at Google or Red Hat?
