This fires me up...and I am in the mood to rant.

I AM IN THE MOOD TO RANT.

Robert McLaws http://weblogs.asp.net/rmclaws/posts/28633.aspx had a nice rant about an article written by "This Guy". I am upset with myself for getting sucked into the “flamewars“ between Microsoft and the rest of the world. But this time I just couldn't help myself. When you see a person make moronic comments in the press you just have to speak up.

For example:

Contrary to Microsoft's claims, open standards does not necessarily mean open environments. Microsoft's Steve Ballmer has said that .Net delivers benefits as a Web services platform through XML (Extensible Markup Language) connectivity extended across clients and servers. The problem with that simplistic view is that while XML and Web services break down barriers when used with open standards, .Net creates insidious new barriers by promoting vendor lock-in for customers.

What vendor lock-in? If he is talking about writing everything in Java, then he is probably going to use a tool from a company with its own set of classes. For example IBM and WSTK (it has been renamed recently) or BEA WebStudio. Now these products have their own classes and proprietary method of doing things. Now they are both java, but they do require you to use their classes. Is this a “proprietary standard”. I think it is, but I'll let him slide for this one. I don't think its valid, but I'll give it to him. But now let's talk about “these barriers” to entry that Microsoft imposes. Which barriers does he mean. He never actually mentioned a single barrier. That really annoys me.

Could he be talking about the fact that .Net doesn't run on Linux (Mono may someday)? But why should it? With Xml Web Services it doesn't matter. The whole point of webservices is that you write them on your platform and let others use it without regard of the underlying platform. I've done this before. It actually works that way (both in Java and in .Net)  But wait a minute. There is “His“ issue of “These Barriers”. Which barriers were those again? I keep forgetting.

Now I especially like this statement

Additionally, Microsoft's claim that .Net's Web services platform saves customers money is misleading. Sure, the initial investment is enticing, but how much will it cost when the hard work begins? A recent Gartner report said companies planning to move their old programs to .Net can expect to pay 40 percent to 60 percent of the cost of developing the programs in the first place.