Zach Alsgaard.com A comprehensive guide to Zach's random thoughts

Microsoft Live Writer

I’m officially drunk on the Microsoft kool-aid by writing this entry from Microsoft Live Writer (a free optional software download I got via Windows Update).  Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple of years, you know that Microsoft has been playing catch-up with just about everything they do as it’s incredibly dangerous to sit still for even a couple of months in the IT industry (not to mention the insanity that is the cell phone industry these days). 

Lately I have been reading up on Microsoft certifications and learning more than anyone should ever need to know about SQL Server 2008.  I figure I’ve been glued to the .NET Framework for a couple of years now at work and I might as well learn as much as possible about the technology I use every day (more kool-aid anyone?).

I saw an interesting headline that caught my attention (mostly because I thought it was a joke): It seems IE actually gained market share last month, evidently reversing it’s painfully slow downward spiral.  I read the chapter from the book Founders At Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days on Blake Ross (creator of Firefox) and he basically says Firefox was only successful because Microsoft had disbanded the IE team and had totally stopped improving its browser.  Blake also mentions that Firefox will quickly lose to Google and Microsoft if they aren’t constantly innovating (obvious), so I’m a little curious as to the reason behind IE’s recent success.  Firefox is still innovating, Google has been idle for a while now, and IE is still stuck at version 8 with promises of 9 around the corner. 

As a Web developer, I really hope to see more adherence to standards – especially IE with version 9.  I am 10+ years sick of things not working or rendering correctly between browsers.  I know this “browser war” will be written later in the history books as one of the most foolish and absurd blunders in the history of the Internet.

Anyway, I’m standing by Microsoft as I’ve been boycotting Apple for well over 15 years now (another story) – but now I’ve decided to take a more active role with Microsoft development.

Oh yeah, and Happy 4th of July!