Of COURSE I Hate Microsoft
Robert Scoble, The Scobleizer, apparently saw a copy of my Mobius post earlier where I included the words "I hate Microsoft" and since those words were edited out is jumping all over me like this is some sort of smoking gun. LOL. Someone who's obviously never seen my weblog before... he didn't even bother to spell my name right.
There are SO many points to this issue, I almost don't know where to begin. Let's see...
First, sorry to have edited my post and waste someone's ranting effort, but I'm pretty sure I changed that line within just a few minutes of posting. This, as I've written before, is my window for editing... I don't touch posts after that time. I really need to add a preview feature, but this sort of thing rarely happens. Since I don't actually even remember editing that phrase out, it must have been a quick tweak before I copied the post wholesale over to Mobitopia... But it doesn't matter, actually, I'm not hiding anything, I was just trying to be nice.
I have no problems admitting that I hate all things Microsoft. You can check my weblog for a variety of rants against the company and their technology. Institutionally the company lies and cheats. They use their illegal monopoly to manipulate smaller companies, developers and customers. The copy great technology and ideas (WIMP, Netscape, Java) and then use their financial power to muscle the originator out of the market. Microsoft's dominance of the industry is literally a crime. There is NOTHING to like about that company.
Furthermore, if you work for - or with - Microsoft, you need to do a reality check. I've said this before, but the question still remains: how do you sleep at night? How do you take pride in your work? Do you like copying other people's innovations? Do you like working with felons? If you're just making a buck, hey, more power to you. If you're one of those gung-ho borged-out drones... Well, all you're doing is making the whole computing industry a worse place to work in. And you KNOW it.
There is no middle of the road here. If you don't actively oppose Microsoft then you are just conceding them whatever market they want and this will directly affect you sooner or later. If you're one of the millions of Java programmers you need to actively oppose ANY Microsoft advancement into your company, otherwise your time and effort learning Java will go straight in the trash. I don't mind competition - Java is improving already by the presence of Dot Not for example - but Microsoft doesn't compete, remember? They use their monopoly advantage to take over whichever market they set their eyes on. And this means that whether you're a Java programmer or a mobile developer, Microsoft is actively planning to make your skills and livelyhood obsolete. Don't forget it.
Okay, beyond that let's get this straight: I meant it when I said I don't want to take Microsoft's free trip because I don't want it to affect my credibility and integrity. It's very simple. When I say I HATE Microsoft, I mean it. They are a horrible company and not worth my time or effort to listen to their pitch and to help them refine their products. Just saying "Hell, yeah. I'll go up to Paris" means that I consider them worthy of my consideration when I hold the whole company beneath contempt. If later I say "Microsoft's Tablet PCs aren't bad, I want one." (which is true) then you know that I must really think that technology is not bad because EVERYONE now knows how much I hate Microsoft. Is this perfectly clear? To me it makes complete sense.
But one thing that's obviously not clear to a lot of people - Microsoft Lover Scoble and a person who emailed me this morning from a very popular tech weblog who is attending - is that bloggers are NOT impartial. THERE ARE NO IMPARTIAL WEBLOGS. I never claimed to be impartial and I am not. This weblog is 100% pure editorial. There is no non-bias here. I am credible only because I have no hidden agendas. I don't lie on my weblog. ALL of my agendas are out in the open for everyone to see: I'm a Java developer interested in mobile technology and want to start my own company and I don't like Microsoft. People who don't take this sort of thing into account while reading weblogs Don't Get It. Blogging is not journalism. Bloggers are not journalists.
Okay, I'm done ranting for now. The one thing from all of this that I'm going to do is make sure that it is VERY obvious on the Mobitopia weblog that its content is 100% biased opinion... I've forward Tom Hume's name on to Microsoft so that maybe they'll invite him out to the event so that it can be covered on the site at least.
-Russ