>Why, exactly, does Microsoft deserve any more commitment than you give to your Stanley hammer, your Ford automobile, or your Coca-Cola beverage??
I certainly get your point - but I'd suggest there is something unique about a developer's relationship with the developer tools Microsoft creates. They are producing tools which leverage our intellectual horsepower to an incredible degree - probably only comparable to the kind of equipment being used to clear the debris in NYC.
They sell us this technology at a ridiculously low price relative to the amount of money we can potentially make using the tool.
As I've often said here and elsewhere "I've made a lot more money off of Microsoft than Microsoft has ever made from me"
I wish I had that kind of business relationship with many other major American corporations ;-)
Charles Hankey
Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.
- Thomas Hardy
Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.
-- T. S. Eliot
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
- Ben Franklin
Pardon him, Theodotus. He is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
