Just trying to figure out how to get onto the Empower ISV program (plus the $875 per year for us in Australia!) is just proving my point about how hard it is to start developing for MS compared to Google now: https://partner.microsoft.com/
Get a Microsoft Live ID, sign up for the partner program, then what do you do? (Not supported in Firefox either)
How is this going to compete with the ease and speed of Google's offering or even Ubuntu+Lamp/ROR etc. and el cheapo shared hosting?
Joel's point was that they have to put at least some hurdle, otherwise, they would crush Borland and co, which would be a bad thing, since they provide devs useful tools.
I don't really know whether that's true or not, but it makes some sense.
Plus, MS has 99% control over the desktop, so it doesn't really make sense for them to give the tools away. Or else what, Linux will steal market share from them?
Get a Microsoft Live ID, sign up for the partner program, then what do you do? (Not supported in Firefox either)
How is this going to compete with the ease and speed of Google's offering or even Ubuntu+Lamp/ROR etc. and el cheapo shared hosting?