Lets set the scene. Its nearly the year 2000. The Y2K bug has companies in fits, Microsoft is about to drop the best version of Windows ever, and you and I are having a conversation about a rumor that a Lord of the Rings movie is in the works. Suddenly, my face goes blank, my eyes roll towards the back of my head and I make the following statement in a voice that is not my own:
"Microsoft Corporation will embark on a series of endeavors that radically shifts the company's attitude regarding open source software and will tie it's future to the long-term success of Linux".
A mixture of surprise and concern covers your face until the absurdity of what I uttered fully registers. Hysterical laughter follows, then taunts proclaiming me the worst psychic since Miss Cleo. Yet, fast forward to today…
Serenity Now
Microsoft has learned to stop worrying and love the mob. It has flung its arms wide open to embrace millions of open source software developers. No one can argue with the fact that Microsoft is now a major force in open source software. They currently have over 4,600 repositories on GitHub. Hell, they even bought GitHub! They collaborate with many companies on technology to make Linux front and center in the cloud and inside Windows itself. Here are but a few examples of their activity in the open source realm:
- Visual Studio Code
- Typescript
- .Net
- The Windows Subsystem for Linux
- LXD Containers (with Canonical)
- Joined the Linux Foundation
What is going on here? Where is the Microsoft many of us used to love to hate. Where is the behavior that produced the abomination known as Internet Explorer 6, J++, DHTML, ActiveX controls, and everything else foisted on developers by Microsoft in their attempt to control the World Wide Web? What contributed to this “doing a 180”? Let us begin by traveling back to the 1990s. Put on a flannel shirt and crank up the Smashing Pumpkins while we figure this all out.
Then: The Focus of Evil in the Modern Tech World
It is hard to overstate how hated Microsoft was by vast swathes of the tech community in the nineties. Detractors considered no deed too dastardly for them to perpetrate. They were the purveyors of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt), spreading it over any new technology they considered a threat. According to the United States Department of Justice, they practiced the black art known as Embrace, Extend, Extinguish, employed to corrupt the meaning of open standards to the eventual benefit of their closed and very profitable software model. The climate of loathing surrounding Microsoft was personified mostly by two individuals who each once held the reins of this behemoth of the technology world.
William the Conqueror: Genius, Ruthless, Nerd
William (Bill) Gates, Microsoft co-founder and CEO until 2000, was mostly well regarded by the general public during his tenure. Many admired his gumption for dropping out of Harvard to start Microsoft with Paul Allen and his shrewd deal with IBM to license Windows. The resulting windfall began his rise to the world’s wealthiest person. His book, The Road Ahead (1995), sold 2.5 million copies. His looks and mannerisms neatly fit the stereotype of the “nerd genius” which lent towards the view of him as a brilliant yet awkward captain of industry.
The tech community held a much dimmer view of Gates however. Stories circulated widely regarding his belittlement of underlings during company meetings. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!” was supposedly a common phrase uttered by Gates to employees during meetings. His peers considered him distant and disconnected and complained about his inability to return calls or letters. Chief amongst his list of negatives was his ruthless aggression against competitors large and small. Critics expressed this trait as an alleged philosophical maxim held by Gates that decreed If a rival cannot be bought then it must be destroyed. These reports made it easy for critcs to cast Gates as the embodiment of Microsoft’s malevolence and malfeasance. That is until Steve Ballmer took over the company.
Sweat, Bombast, and Cancer
There is but one candidate for the most loathed and ridiculed person in tech for the past 30 years. This distinction has been, and possibly always will be, in the possession of one Steven Anthony Ballmer, former Executive Vice President, President, and CEO (succeeding Gates) of Microsoft Corporation. His screaming, dancing (badly), profuse sweating, and wildly inaccurate prognostications all became grist for the never-ending mill that ground Ballmer down to a pathetic caricature in the eyes of many. His denouncement of open source software was the primary source of the abject hatred directed at Ballmer by detractors outside the Microsoft ecosystem. His attitude towards open source is best expressed by his declaration that, “Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches”. Needless to say, this sentiment, among many others expressed by Ballmer, coupled with his unique behavioral traits, crystallized to create the near universal perception that Microsoft, under his stewardship, would forever be the fiercest enemy of open software and the eternal adversary to those who support it.
Hope and Change
By 2014, both Gates and Ballmer were gone and it appears the hostility towards open source left with them. Trends in the industry pointed to the cloud and mobile exerting ever-increasing dominance; two areas that had nothing to do with Microsoft’s traditional revenue streams. Enter new CEO Satya Nadella, former executive vice president of Microsoft’s cloud and enterprise group. His rise indicated the sea change in effect regarding Microsoft’s future direction. This shift had to executed with a keen eye on the maintenance of the company’s traditional business models. Starting with open sourcing some existing code such as the .Net Framework, efforts began to multiply rapidly and by 2017 Microsoft was a leader in open source contributions worldwide.
Fear and Loathing
Old hatreds are the hardest to eliminate and the hate towards Microsoft goes back a long time. It is a persistent attitude Microsoft continues to battle. Each open source initiative brings with it a vocal contingent of naysayers eager to lay out all the nefarious actions done during the Gates/Ballmer era. However, each new year brings thousands of new developers unaware of the bad old days. This works in Microsoft’s favor over the long term.
The Road Ahead
Microsoft has demonstrated a persistent ability to adapt and evolve to meet the pressures of natural business changes for the last 50 years. The evolution hasn’t always been pretty and it’s former business philosophy will always be a topic of discussion. This shouldn’t distract from the enormous good Microsoft has fostered in recent years for millions of developers around the world. Lets hope it continues.
