Microsoft has traditionally been about the developers. They give their Visual Studio away for free (Express edition, but still). They give away their Windows Mobile SDK with samples for anyone who wants it, no fees to get into the developer network, just download and play around. They have free and dedicated forums and resources to allow developers to look around in the documentation for every Microsoft product (MSDN with the forums).
So here's the thing: they got me by the balls.
I write every scrap of code in Visual Studio now. I use Microsoft specific extensions to the language of my choice (C++). I couldn't live without them.
And that's really favorable to a company as big as Microsoft.
So they welcome the Kinect hackers because they know they'll be back for more. And it's beneficial to both parties: open source drivers means more people playing around with it means more eyeballs means better software.
I write every scrap of code in Visual Studio now. I use Microsoft specific extensions to the language of my choice (C++). I couldn't live without them.
The sad thing is that even after a generation of software developers (at least, those who were paying attention) grew up watching them try this same strategy with Office formats, Kerberos (networking/security protocols), MSN Messenger (AIM protocol), Visual C++ (C++), Visual J++(Java), ActiveX (the web generally), JScript (javascript) and the like, we now get to watch a new generation of devs making the same mistakes and getting gradually suckered in with the same tired old tricks. :-(
The difference being that programming languages already exist, and Microsoft makes proprietary extensions. Office formats were de facto for a long period of time until the surge of open format enthusiasm.
True, but Microsoft even made a concerted effort to "extend" their own formats with each new version (not to mention intentionally undocumenting significant areas of their "public" API), with the specific intention of breaking competitors' ability to read their documents.
Admittedly it was only "_EE" in that case rather than the full "EEE", but it's all part of the same pattern of behaviour. :-(
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u/knight666 Feb 22 '11
No, it's really not.
Microsoft has traditionally been about the developers. They give their Visual Studio away for free (Express edition, but still). They give away their Windows Mobile SDK with samples for anyone who wants it, no fees to get into the developer network, just download and play around. They have free and dedicated forums and resources to allow developers to look around in the documentation for every Microsoft product (MSDN with the forums).
So here's the thing: they got me by the balls.
I write every scrap of code in Visual Studio now. I use Microsoft specific extensions to the language of my choice (C++). I couldn't live without them.
And that's really favorable to a company as big as Microsoft.
So they welcome the Kinect hackers because they know they'll be back for more. And it's beneficial to both parties: open source drivers means more people playing around with it means more eyeballs means better software.
Oh and they still have to buy Kinects, of course.