There’s been some interesting conversation in a few corners of the blogosphere about Fellowship Church’s switch to Linux/Apache/PostgreSQL/PHP for web applications. Brian Bailey, Web Developer at Fellowship Church, has blogged about some of the reasons for this change.
Interestingly, Robert Scoble has noted (rightly so, I think) that these reasons are exactly what Microsoft will need to overcome to keep mindshare in the Microsoft-centric development modes, and in Scoble’s own words, "to win back developers."
Well, just in the slim chance that Scoble peeks his eyes over here, here’s the problem I see with that.
I can’t speak for other developers, so I’ll just speak for myself. I don’t hate Microsoft (and at least part of that goodwill is probably due to Scoble’s own blog, his transparency, and his genuine zeal for all things MS), but I don’t love Microsoft or it’s products, either. On the other Linux, PHP, Python, Ruby, and a host of other (mainly open source) technologies have captured my enthusiasm, and my affections.
The war that Microsoft is fighting is a war over enthusiasm; what they would need to "win back" is not just a developer using their technologies for a project or two, but win back the enthusiasm of that developer. Microsoft could create the best platforms they’ve ever made, they could repair everything that’s broken in IE, and they would earn an honest, "good for you" from me and a lot of other people. But would that win back our enthusiasm? To be honest, I can’t see it.
And that, not "Linux", not "PHP", not "Open Source"… the problem of getting that enthusiasm is Microsoft’s biggest obstacle.
At least, in my view.
Slightly off topic, but Terry Storch (CTO, also at Fellowship Church), has re-worked the graphic which heads up his blog. In case we had forgotten, he’s a bit of a Google fan. :-)
