Roedy said:
the problem is MS makes more money if you change your tools. Then you
have to buy new ones, get more training etc. It is to their economic
disadvantage if you sit too comfortably.
The real problem for them is that they might make a tool that somebody
would use to create a viable application that could compete with their
Office products.
Why do you think they produce crappy, flawed IDEs and arcane languages?
The more they can keep developers off their trail -- the easier it is
for them to keep their monopoly.
Take VB: It's been around 10 years. Name me one application, written in
VB that has launched a company or business to success. ONE. JUST NAME
ONE. You can't can you.
Ok, take Visual c++ : Look at how long that was the mainstay of /real/
development. Then: Poof! Off it goes! Sorry boys, all that code you
wrote: well, its /unmanaged/ and we can't use it. Now you have to
write all your code in c#.
# of c# killer applications that have launched software companies: 0
# of vb.net killer applications that have launched software companies: 0
# of vb6 killer applications that have launched software companies: 0
On the other hand, every time they create abrupt change, they risk
losing customers faced with the prospect of a total rewrite anyway.
Or, as above, what they do is kill off potential competitors who may
have started getting really good at writing apps as good as Microsoft's
They basically have a love/hate relationship with developers. They want
developers to write for Windopes -- so it locks in the product, but they
/dont/ want them to write real applications that would challenge m$.