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I am generally a Microsoft/Windows advocate - not because I'm a zealot and it's a religious thing like operating systems are to some people - mainly because Windows makes me money right now.

As a platform, Apple is more closed than Windows and I can't stand the arrogance of Apple zealots. I used Unix for my first 15 years in the industry, so I like Linux, but from a mass market point of view, people seem to want everything for free. So MS is right for me at this time.

That being said, Microsoft stepped in it and now they are trying to backtrack. They pushed Silverlight big time. Now they want to change their mind?

I chose Silverlight to do a development project I am currently working on, as many others have. Now they seem to want to shift focus away from it after pushing it. There are a lot of people pissed about this.

It's not that suprising - again, as much as I generally support MS, they do have a way of pushing a technology then just tossing it aside in favor of the "new way".

I look back and think about the countless hours I could have spent (and know others who have) learning various technologies that they just cast aside. Just recently, LINQ to SQL was going to be the "big thing", but then they decided that Entity Framework is the "right way".

Some changes are understandable because the world of technology dictates a change, but others frustrate you because they push and push a technology as the "next big thing" or the "right way" and then just abandon it in favor of something else - almost not realizing that people spent time and resources because of their PR and advice.

RE: Just recently, LINQ to SQL was going to be the “big thing”, but then they decided that Entity Framework is the “right way”.

Hey, don’t tell me Microsoft is now planning to let LINQ go by the wayside? I just spent money on a LINQ book and spent weeks trying to master it and now you’re telling me my hours spent to make myself more marketable in the IT world is all in vain ?

That's been my biggest frustration with Microsoft - their development tools are great, but they seem to come out with a new paradigm every year or two that invalidates and supersedes what has gone before. That might be a great way to sell more Office licenses to business users, but to developers it's a betrayal.

Which is the major reason I switched to OS/X and now do nothing but web development with standard languages and tools. I still like SQL Server and its related products, but I don't want to get trapped by any more of Microsoft's for-profit paradigm shifts.

What about C#, SQL Server and ASP.NET? Good Lord, these are my bread and butter for the past 3 years ( I spent $6,000 on a 2 1/2 month, 4 hour, M-F class trying to learn them and found employment after that ).

I’m going to kill someone if they do away with this ( figuratively of course ).

As Ann Coulter used to say, “If the Death Penalty does not deter murder, why is Michael Moore still alive and I am not in Jail?”