Quote:
Originally Posted by KevinS  I think this was their answer to the whole PHP/MySql thing............. |
I suspect it was more about continuing to try to make themselves less of a regulatory target as well as continuing to make what appear to be friendly gestures (or at least a friendly wave) at the Open Source community
as well as helping to assure that Windows would continue to be well-supported by a range of affordable development tools. And what's more affordable than free? Making them free, additionally, helps lighten the onerous burden of support, as well, which is
always one of the biggest expenses of any software release.
Whatever, I like free stuff as much or more than the next guy and I was delighted that this stuff not only worked but that MS had improved at least some of their support materials considerably since the last time I dipped my toe in the MSDN waters (and
that was for paid-for tools).
But I don't, for an instant, think MS gave us this stuff for anything other than strategic ends, don't get me wrong.
