>You're right, you don't need 8,000 to be productive. 3,250 is the right number! But seriously, don't you realize that the sole reason for the exccessively rapid language/technology changes is so Microsoft can sell more?

Derek, that sentiment is shared by many but if you look at MS's numbers, they dont make anything on the developer tools. In most cases that practically give Visual Studio away. Where MS makes money is people writing apps for the Windows platform. The "excessively rapid language/technology changes" is to sell more Windows, Windows Server, Office, SQl Server. The better the apps are that run on these platforms the better these platforms sell. That business model hasn't changed in 20 years and it works!