Many of you who know me, or read my blog comments on others' blogs, know that I am passionate about supporting Microsoft products. I support Microsoft products primarily because I think they are great products when you have full knowledge and know how to use them and how to maintain them.

Now, this is not to say I do not support Linux, Sun or Apple. I actually very much believe Linux and Mac are great operating systems. I use Linux in day to day operations both for myself and clients, generally for routing and firewalling using the OSS IPCop (linux-based). IPCop has also never failed me. I also have recently been recommending MacBook Pro to a few clients, mostly because the machines are so damn durable. I own two Macs, a Mac Classic and a 500Mhz G4. That G4 cost me $3k and I can't upgrade the CPU. Because of this it was the last Mac I owned.

I also fully support OSS. I even have some open source projects out there, and am working on more. I utilize MySQL, NMap, and a host of other packages for network management, ColdFusion application development and web hosting.

Today, I read this article on CNN. I must say I am fully disappointed in Microsoft. I also think this is one of the worst things Microsoft can do to their business.

I do not have a problem with owning intellectual property. I fully support it and I think it's great that so many companies and private individuals can make a profit from their IP. It's one of my goals and, until now, was part of my 10 year plan. However, there is something inherently wrong with a company as powerful as Microsoft strong-arming the rest of the world with the threats of licensing IP of 235 patents.

The first issue I have with this is that it will seriously stifle innovation. Do you know which 235 patents Microsoft is talking about? If you said yes then you need a life, seriously.  The rest of us don't have the time or financial resources to spend sifting through thousands of patents to determine if the product we are developing violates one of these patents. In the end, the little guy loses. We will be unable to develop new products without the fear of being sued by the giants, even if what we developed is given away freely and we do not make a profit from it! If this endeavor by MS is successful we will no longer have the freedom to develop open source applications, and small companies will not have the resources to develop software due to the massive financial burden created by the need to research software patents to determine if they are in violation.

This will also drive the cost of commercial software through the roof. As companies must spend more money on IP research the costs of development will increase, and thus be passed on to us. As the costs increase so will piracy, with fewer and fewer people able to afford these products. As the piracy rate rises companies will be forced to again increase their prices to recuperate from these losses. This sets up a vicious cycle. Additionally, since Microsoft will have a even deeper hold on the market they will be able to increase their licensing costs, since companies will be forced to license from them or leave MS as the only supplier of certain technologies.

I believe that a part of what is going on here is that Microsoft is scared. Microsoft sees their share of desktops declining. People are choosing Ubuntu (or other Linux desktop) and OS X over Windows. It is cheaper and now these desktops can offer much of what Windows accomplishes very easily.

Rich Internet Applications are quickly going to replace many desktop software applications, With the advent of Adobe's Flex and Apollo, Sun's JavaFX, AJAX and numerous other technologies it is quickly becoming apparent to MS that they are loosing their foothold in this market. It is also becoming easy for large organizations to duplicate the functionality of many of the standard desktop applications at a much lower cost using these RIA technologies.

Rather than embrace this movement Microsoft is lashing out, punishing innovators and threatening our industry with collapse.

As a Microsoft enthusiast I encourage Microsoft to reconsider. I encourage them to take a look at ways to open this technology to everyone. Otherwise they are setting themselves on a course to be hated, not just by their competition, but my the hundreds of thousands of developers and small business owners who rely on open source products in our day to day operations to make a living.

Lastly, if you have a blog, I encourage you to voice your opinion to Microsoft. Be professional, but be blunt. This is a serious issue which effects everyone who uses, develops, or sells technology.