A more likeable Microsoft?

SundayTimes | at | by Mike

I spent the last four days at the annual Microsoft Tech-Ed conference, along with 1 300 other eager developers from around the country and the continent. Having attended last year's event, I was fully prepared for the marketing hype and the all-too-common platitudes about how great the company is. What I wasn't prepared for was the subtle winds of change that seem to have blown through the company since last year.

Clearly the company is starting to embrace a more open way of operation. There was more talk this year of open standards than at any other Microsoft function I have ever attended. Of course, it stops miles short of embracing the open source model, but the willingness to co-operate with other companies and software is clearly there. 2002's Tech-Ed had a whole new style: it was open to discussion, actually mentioned working with competitors and put developers at the heart of what was on offer. The message was clear: Visual Studio, .Net and the likes are for developers. It is a tool for them to create what they want to create and how they want to create it. But more importantly, it is no longer a Microsoft-only world and developers will have to, and can, work with other systems.