Leaving Microsoft Behind

In life most relationships don't suddenly end. In reality they degrade over time moving from love and respect to indifference and then to contempt. Eventually there comes a point where the only thing left to do is to say good-bye. I came to that point with Microsoft in 2002.

Personally, I've made a complete break with all their products. However, my software company, The Oasis Group, Ltd. still uses and develops software for Windows. This situation is like having my ex's stuff still in my house - awkward and uncomfortable reminders of an unclean break. Windows still exists at Oasis only because we have one last project to finish before we can be free of it. Despite that, we haven't purchased a license for Windows or any Microsoft product in years and we have mostly moved to open source software instead.

This was not a casual thing. I was not an anonymous software developer banging out code for a living. I had a thriving boutique company that was doing interesting work around the world for the bluest of blue chip firms. We were in deep as a Certified Solution Provider, Certified Solution Developers, authors of magazine articles and several books on developing software with Visual Basic, SQL Server, Oracle and Access and I spoke at numerous conferences, some sponsored by Microsoft. All of my business associates, co-authors and fellow conference speakers were also Microsoft adherents. Until I made the break, alternatives were not discussed or even contemplated.

The fact that I made the break says less about any brilliance on my part than it does about the smothering effect Microsoft has on customers and on the developers they have brought into their ecosystem. I rarely found Microsoft developers who were not also apologists. I know because I was one of them. "Hello, my name's James and I'm a Microsoftaholic."

I guess I got here in some ways like a lot of people. After years of putting up with crappy software I was confronted with two realities by Redmond: endure having to get my software developers to learn what was at the time an untried and rather amorphous new development environment called .NET and start paying what I thought were exceedingly high new licensing costs for software that was proving to be increasingly unstable, obstinate, insecure and late.

But I had a choice. I could have chosen to go along in order to get along or I could make a break for it. I chose to make a daring daylight escape. I chose to run and I'm glad I did.

In other posts I'll explain in greater detail how this all happened, what I was seeking, what I've found and how my little company is going to continue to explore - and thrive - with the freedom it has claimed for itself. It's been an interesting trip so far and I think the scenery is just going to get better and better.