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Kas Thomas

Microsoft's new game plan: Target the dorm room

19-Feb-2008

Tags: Evaluating SharePoint, Web Content Management, , Implementation

Microsoft is attempting what may amount to a brilliant and daring preemptive strike against Adobe, Linux, Java, and open source, all in one, with its DreamSpark program.

In case you haven't heard, DreamSpark is Microsoft's new plan to make full, working copies of Visual Studio, Expression Studio, Windows 2003 Server, and XNA Game Studio available free to college students in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, Germany, France, Finland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Belgium. The plan requires annual verification of student status but otherwise comes without restrictions.

Microsoft's explanation to students is: "It is our hope that the DreamSpark program will spark your creativity and help you harness software's transformative magic to turn your good ideas into reality, by equipping you with the tools you need to succeed and excel during your academic experience and skills you will need after graduation."

A better wording might be: "It is our hope that if you begin your programming career using Microsoft products, developing for Microsoft targets, you will soon be addicted to the crystal-meth-like allure of our products and not be enticed by open source. You will find it easy to resist such evils as Adobe AIR, Flash, and Flex in favor of Vista and SilverLight. And the only Java you will encounter will be in the form of a hot brown liquid."

If DreamSpark has the desired (by Redmond) effect of getting young minds accustomed to doing .Net, SilverLight, and Xbox programming using Microsoft tools and platforms, it could very well short-circuit Adobe's somewhat laborious effort to get AIR off the ground while keeping the focus squarely on .Net as a development target (rather than, say, Java). Redmond might hope that it will steer dorm room programmers away from Linux (where Visual Studio doesn't run, of course) -- although somehow I think it will take more than a free IDE to do that.

Indeed, at least one blogger (Alfresco's Matt Asay) has pooh-poohed DreamSpark as doomed to fail, based on the availability of free IDEs like Eclipse, free OS Platforms (e.g., Linux and KDE desktop), and open-source tools galore. But that misses the point. A bag of bolts isn't the same as a shrinkwrapped Erector Set. The Microsoft tools are (by comparison to open-source components, at least) integrated with each other as well as with the Microsoft runtime platforms. They benefit from certain synergies. Whatever the efforts of RedHat and others, Eclipse plus Java plus Linux does not add up to the same thing.

Who knows? If DreamSpark is a wild success, perhaps it could ultimately induce Ballmer and Company to do the unthinkable: Give away Microsoft development tools to everybody.