Drupal / Microsoft - Thoughts On Microsoft And Open Source

As our project with Microsoft comes to a conclusion, it seems like a good time to take stock of what we've learnt and what the corporate giant itself might take away from the experience. For my part, I've definitely seen things from a slightly different perspective in this case study, and had a chance to play with some tools and technologies that I probably would never have bothered to pick up otherwise.

The Big Picture

Microsoft has become friendlier towards open source of late, even open source that has its roots in Linux rather than MS tech itself, and this is definitely a good thing. There were some knee-jerk negative reactions from the Drupal community when word of this work first got out, but this seems pretty short sighted. If we can ensure compatibility, ie. ensuring that Drupal can run on IIS, then both sides benefit. Drupal and PHP can start to find themselves a place in organisations that would never consider them otherwise, because they have the official seal of approval from the Redmond mothership. The new Web Platform Installer has PHP, Drupal and lots of other open source web apps preloaded; it's now the recommended way of managing the installation of web server software on Windows, and so represents a powerful new distribution channel. At the same time, open source communities should not forget that Microsoft is still a highly corporate, profit driven entity. It has decided to engage and coexist with open source because it sees that this is in its own best interests. The way that this project was scoped and prioritised made that very clear; it was essential we use technologies such as Silverlight, even though they might not be the most ubiquitous. Even so, I believe it is still possible that both sides can benefit from the relationship. There shouldn't be anything approaching ideology or dogma (whether corporate or collectivist) in these discussions. Our business is to make the best products and experiences for clients and end users, regardless of underlying technology.

Personal Choices

As a developer, this project has given me a taster of a range of Microsoft tech that I would not have encountered otherwise, and although I see that the various tools are fine at what they do, there is nothing really to tempt me away from my current choices. To give a couple of examples: Windows - I used to happily develop on Windows but left it 2 years ago for OS X, and there really is nothing that would tempt me back. The quality of software and UI design on the Mac is just so much higher - and you can't beat having a proper shell at your fingertips rather than the clunky old command prompt. Of course, lots of people do still use Windows for coding in PHP and other open source languages, and there are plenty of good IDEs (like Zend Studio and Komodo). IIS - looking at the IIS admin console instills fear in my heart. It is a baffling maze of popups, wizards and control panels with no clear overall order or any real sense of where options might be buried. The Apache config file may be little arcane, but it is full of comments explaining what bits do and you can easily just scan through it. It's simply more straightforward. Silverlight - if I was going to build a rich internet app or web driven desktop app, I would still choose Adobe Flex/AIR over Silverlight. The IDEs are available on Mac, are better designed, and the languages (MXML/Actionscript) are more comfortable for a web developer than XAML/C#. And the flash plugin is installed on more than twice as many machines. I feel that my reaction would probably be typical of most developers who focus on open source and web technology. The Microsoft stuff is okay, but often not as good as the tools we are already using - or when equivalent, not worth the investment in terms of time to switch over, because the current tools are still paying the bills.

In Conclusion

Microsoft shouldn't expect a deluge of new developers using their tools because they've become more open to open source. The effects of their change in stance will take more time to show benefits, and will play out in small and large ways in thousands of projects and organisations, as approaches and solutions that were once blocked become doable. This will be a very positive for both sides. Hopefully, the company is willing to take the long term view and will continue its current approach - even if there are not quick and immediate benefits for the bottom line.