Seriously, welcome to the other side, old friend. As you know, I myself ‘crossed over’ three years ago, and don’t miss it. What I don’t miss the most are the uber-geeks who both denigrate those who know less and attempt to kiss up to (and gain the knowledge of) those who know more, as if technical knowledge were the ‘be all’ and ‘end all’ of human existance. Love, compassion, communing with one’s fellow man and the environment around us, all seem to be secondary to ‘bending [the latest bit] with a nail’ (to paraphrase someone from Microsoft’s technical support department, some years ago) to such ‘techies’. Not knowing everything may be a sign of weakness to some, but no true professional, no businessman or executive, would view a lack of omnipotence as ‘unprofessional’ (though you’re likely correct in stating that some ‘techies’ might).

As for Microsoft, they’ve been trying to undermine open source for YEARS, going all the way back to the origins of the Mozilla project. And their support of SCO’s Linux lawsuit against IBM, their aggressive undercutting of Java, and a number of other actions have illustrated the consistency of their continued efforts, year after year after year. Of course, considering their business model, Microsoft’s actions make perfect sense, and I’m sure their shareholders would agree (off the record, of course). Thankfully, I own no Microsoft stock (that I know of, at least).