Life is too short to be anti-anything. I have seen people poisoned by being
against things. They become bitter and resentful. It is better to be
proactive and live your life as best you can IMO. For me that means not
using Mono but don't get in a tizzy if others do.

Microsoft is what it is. We can't change them. We can change FOSS and keep
it positive and strong. For me the strength in Linux is in our diversity.
This is what frustrates Microsoft. For the first time they have run up
against a competitor that they can't buy or put out of business. Slowly they
are starting to embrace open source. I say that with caution. I would not be
surprised to see them pull an Apple and base their next version of Windows
on Linux as Apple did with BSD. They could even buy Novell, although they
are not flush with cash as they once were.

Unfortunately Microsoft has not made wise decisions in the past few years,
except perhaps to jump off the sinking ship that was Vista. They are no
longer predictable. They were at one time the top corporate logo in terms of
respect, but they have faded badly. They are doing everything half heartedly
and nothing well. They are into cloud computing, but it is reluctant as they
have not moved away from the old paradigm. They still believe in the
desktop. They are late getting into new endeavours and when they do they
often muck it up, like with the Zune and Blu Ray. Windows 7 Series 7 mobile
appears to be its latest loser. Their bread and butter is in selling OSes.
Even Office was struck a blow in the courts. So try as they might they need
for some successes.

Windows 7 is a success but it can't carry them forever. The desktop and even
laptop market will dry up as young people are more into embedded devices.
Microsoft is desperately trying to recreate itself but does not know what to
become. A little of this and that does not work. They need to be all in on
something in order to ride the wave to my way of thinking and i don't see
that.

I wish them luck. Lots of people are depending on them and that is too bad
for them. Microsoft has created a dependency that they may not be able to
deliver on. That is an opportunity for new players. That is why Apple is so
successful. They know how to read the market and innovate. I seldom think of
Microsoft anymore. That is how irrelevant they have become to me and many
others. I say that with some sadness because while Apple (II) was my first
OS, DOS and Windows were my second. But Linux is where I see the future.

If I was in IT or programming then I would be either working in servers and
small devices in a big way. Those two extremes seem to be where we are
headed. I remember an argument between Bill Gates and Larry Ellison (Oracle)
about fifteen years ago. Gates was king of the desktop, but Ellison said the
future is in cloud computing (not called that then). Gates made his billions
but so did Ellison. Now Gates' company is trying to survive and Ellison's
vision is proving true. The devices that we use are becoming smaller and
more powerful, but they are also mere portals to delivering services on the
cloud.