Greetings Jason,
How are doing? I’m pretty sure your very busy and all as an executive for Microsoft, especially when threatening other developers when they are only trying to have fun programming software and improving the experience for other developers. I am writing to you with one simple question, which will be the premise of this entire open letter.
How do you sleep at night?
I’m very curious. Considering that there is very heavy competition from the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) communities, I find it very curious that you are threatening somebody who was considered an MVP. Yes, I’m speaking of Jamie Cansdale, an individual who is clearly very talented, and from the type of behavior you have displayed towards this individual, one who is apparently to be feared by anyone inside of Microsoft Corporation. Do you not want talented developers to grow a community centered around Windows platform development, or is your confidence in your own developers so lacking that you have chosen to bully another individual who had the gall, no… the audacity to show some actual talent in creating software that enhances quality of software development itself?
Now considering that there are great alternatives to many of the products that your company releases, it does puzzle me as to why an innocent developer such as Mr. Cansdale would pose such a threat to your company.
- Microsoft Windows: GNU and Linux. Need I say more? Wait, I think I will.
- Microsoft Office: OpenOffice.org, which has the ability to export directly to PDF.
- Microsoft Internet Explorer: All kinds of browsers.
- Mozilla Firefox and any derivatives thereof.
- GNU IceWeasel.
- KDE’s own Konqueror.
- Any browser using the Gecko rendering engine!
- Microsoft Windows Media Player: All kinds of competition here!
- VideoLAN Client (VLC).
- MPlayer
- Windows Live Messenger: Pidgin.
Now there is certainly more I can add to the list, but I’m sure the point stands. Now wouldn’t it make more sense to leave Mr. Cansdale alone in the light of such a reality? After all, your company does have some serious competition facing it, and you really don’t want him to start developing software that is licensed under the GNU General Public License, would you? If he were to do such a thing, it would be mainly because individuals such as yourself pushed him into doing so.
I am truly curious. Inquiring minds would like to know.
When you look in the mirror when you wake up in the morning, what do you see?
Do you see somebody who has truly succeeded in life? What does your conscience tell you? Do you have one? Do you know what one is? Do you see a monster in the mirror?
Is Microsoft that much of a religion to you that anybody outside of your church can not improve upon your own products without your wrath? Or is it true that the only people that employees of Microsoft are here to help is Microsoft itself? Do you truly care about developers, or is that so if and only if they are employed and under the complete control of Microsoft? Finally, are you aware that your actions along with the actions of the legal team may very well steer people away from Microsoft based development product solutions? Do you think for yourself, or are you merely following orders? You should truly be ashamed of yourself.