Something interesting happened on the road to and from software dominance. Microsoft, which always delighted in displacing the old farts of technology, has become an old fart itself. Yes, ladies and gents, meet Microsoft: the new IBM. What once seemed a hungry, always-working-the-angles product powerhouse now seems increasingly set in its ways and downright stodgy.
Case in point: When asked how Microsoft will fix its enterprise licensing debacle, a spokesman professed disbelief that there's even a problem, saying the program is right in line with how Oracle does things. So here's a high-ranking PR person actually citing Oracle (Oracle!) as an exemplar in corporate licensing. That would have been unimaginable from the old Microsoft. Another example: A SQL Server product management-type discounts MySQL out of hand. He never sees the open-source database in any mission-critical deployments, it sneaks into corporate accounts, blah blah blah. Does he not remember this is exactly how SQL Server started out not all that long ago? Maybe he better talk to some of his elders.
News source: CRN
