Aral Balkan

Oh yeah, and Episode 9 of the .net podcast that we recorded the other day is now live! Listen to it here!

Here's a summary of what went down, from the .net site:

Silverlight vs Flash

Microsoft have been heavily pushing Silverlight, their "flash killer" at MIX07 and it has created a considerable stir. Techcrunch are claiming that this could be the end of flash and AJAX. In one of their posts they claimed that "it made flash/flex look like an absolute toy" and "without exaggeration, AJAX looks like a bicycle next to a Ferrari when compared to Silverlight". Our panel is not so sure. Aral Balkan was not at all impressed while Gary Marshall (who was at MIX07) gave only guarded praise. What the panel did agree on was that some healthy competition will keep Adobe on their toes.

Google’s plans for world domination

This month’s .net magazine is packed with some great interviews with Google staff and so we thought it would be good to discuss their plans for world domination on the show. We cover geotagging, SEO techniques and the story that Google are actively targeting Microsoft with their office suite.

Microsoft squashes open source

The entire panel fall over each other in an attempt to be the first to condemn Microsoft’s campaign to extract royalties from the open source community. The general feeling is that not only is this a PR disaster for Microsoft, it is also nearly impossible to achieve. The conclusion is to simply ban software patents... period :)

Home working

In this month’s .net magazine Gary writes a column about home working and how more companies should embrace the practice. As we have a mixed panel made up of both office workers, home workers and (in Aral’s case) coffee house workers, we decided to chat about the pros and cons of leaving the commute behind.

Listen to Episode 9 of the .net podcast here.

Comments

• "On this show; Aral attacks Silverlight, Google plans world domination, Microsoft squash the open source community and Gary says we should all work in our pajama’s (well he implied it anyway)." I LOVE THE TITLE!

  by Savvas Malamas on 2007-05-19 19:43:11

• Not bad, not bad. I fell like my life is pretty good... I wonder how much better it'd be after I switch. I'll admit that I'm beginning to lose faith in Silverlight--not that I was ever really high on it. The first demos I saw were pretty impressive (especially the video) but now I can't seem to get it installed (I swear I never uninstalled it). Anyway, that program would have been better if they had someone who actually KNEW silverlight. Otherwise, it was a good interview.

  by Phillip Kerman on 2007-05-20 02:38:03

• Great content, but boy do they need to sort out the audio quality. BTW I've just bought my first Mac ;-)

  by Stefan Richter on 2007-05-22 09:01:42

• You too Stefan, Aral and Bill have been pontificating to me about the joys of Macness. Interesting interview.

  by aYo on 2007-05-22 09:47:09

• Congrats Stefan! :) aYo: I'm assuming you're next, then? :) About the audio quality: Not sure what they can do -- it's recorded over Skype with people around the world.

  by aral on 2007-05-22 19:40:08

• Interesting podcast :) Just need to clarify, we are in alpha.. i repeat, we are in alpha ;P I'd love a followup post Release to guage reactions etc. I think there was a lot of emotion in the room though, maybe a little more to the anti-Microsoft side which is I guess fine, but it's not as balanced as I hoped it would be? I do like your comment though aral on Flash Killer "Harmony" :P (i'll side-step the open source issue, as that is umm.. yeah) - Scott Barnes Developer Evangelist Microsoft.

  by Scott Barnes on 2007-05-23 00:53:51

• Hi Scott, I don't think the idea behind these podcasts is to present a "balanced" story on any given subject but to get a group of developers, etc., together and talk about events of the day. "Balanced", like "objective" is a very loaded word in any case. Remember, Fox News is apparently "fair and balanced". "Honest" is a far better word to describe things and I believe that the .net podcast was an honest, unscripted conversation and nothing more. I think it says something that the sentiment in general was negative regarding Microsoft. Personally, I don't see how it could be any different given the aggressive posture Microsoft has against the open source community. They're not doing themselves any favors. Couple that with the ridiculous level of DRM in Vista and I don't see how anyone who doesn't actually receive a paycheck from Microsoft (directly or indirectly) could think anything positive about them. When I think Microsoft, I think Steve Ballmer. If you need to personify the company as a whole, you can't go far wrong by looking at the character of its CEO. And I don't like what I see one bit. As I mentioned in the podcast, Microsoft is an empire in decline and they are going to go down with guns blazing. They're huge, it won't happen overnight but Microsoft will lose its dominance in the consumer software field within the next decade. I know I won't be shedding too many tears.

  by aral on 2007-05-23 09:31:56

• Aral, I have to agree with you here. Such pettiness only comes from extreme greed and/or when a behemoth begins to feel vulnerable and threatened. MS does not like the current trend of rival systems offering options and competition to their products. Funny though considering the way they have acquired a lot of their technology. I like and use a lot of MS products but, they really need a rethink of their business models and strategy in order to grow and win more friends. That being said we're still fighting Adobe over their Rest of World v US sales policies. I still do not have Flash Pro CS3. I simply will not buy it at the daylight robbery UK prices ( I hate the feeling of being a muggins) and will wait till I visit the states or get someone there to get it for me

  by aYo on 2007-05-23 09:40:55

• And yes when the next Mac OS is released along with the next generation of Mac books I will be getting one. :)

  by aYo on 2007-05-23 09:42:50

• hey ayo.. thats exactly what i'm thinking of doing... i've got a new sony at the moment with vista, i do enjoy it and do think that they done an outstanding job.. but i'm pretty sure the next gen macs are gonna kick some serious a$$...

  by ryan on 2007-05-23 22:40:30

• Interesting pod cast, a bit biased but what ever floats your code! I am a bit leery of Microsoft’s Silverlight project, I do not think it can really compete with Flash, I do not think Microsoft can compete in this area. One area that Microsoft has done an outstanding job has been the .NET framework and the supporting languages such as C#. On the issue on not having software patentable, I think this has merit. Now for the Open Source issue, it would be nice to have just a pod cast on this topic. I must admit my open source knowledge is not what it should be. But what is the problem with proprietary software? I find the open source communities problem with Microsoft in certain areas as ludicrous, the same argument could be applied to Boeing and Airbus for example. As a perceived view of how I think some in the open source community think, it would be that Boeing for example needs to make all of its plans on the 787 airplne available to everyone, but why would Boeing want Airbus to have plans of its new 787 airplane? Could this same argument be made for software, why would MS want to share all of its code base?

  by Richard on 2007-05-25 19:19:12

• Hi Richard, The Open Source issue is this: Microsoft is trying to kill off open source software by making open source projects pay royalties for infringing upon software patents that it owns. There is nothing wrong with proprietary software but there is everything wrong with what Microsoft is doing here. I don't know where you got the idea that we want Microsoft to share its codebase. Personally, I'd be happy if it kept its code to itself. What we don't want is for Microsoft to attack the open source community by spreading FUD and demanding payment for software patents it claims it owns.

  by aral on 2007-05-26 06:36:02

• Microsoft should compete on the basis of quality. If Word is better than Open Office Write, then people will pay for it, hell I have. They broke Java because they saw it as a threat, only now 12 years later do they have a viable alternative. As much as Microsoft make good products, I don't like their bully-boy tactics. Think of any recent Microsoft product, and then think if they had the idea, of did they think "ohh that market looks promising, lets ram raid in" ..Xbox, PocketPC, .NET, Vista, Live.com, Silverlight, Windows Media player. I won't go back as far as Windows and Mac OS. They are a company that takes ideas, and in many cases improves on them, and also gets them wrong. Original ideas , not MS. Maybe office is the one exception, and why they make all their money from it.

  by Marc on 2007-05-28 21:07:25

• Hello Aral, Thanks for clarifying the Open Source issue. My apologies if I somehow insinuated that the .net pod cast some how insisted that MS open its code base up.

  by Richard on 2007-05-29 15:45:46

• Hi guys, thanks for the feedback on the podcast. And Aral, it was very generous of you to give up your time, and it's much appreciated. Regarding the quality issues, we are aware that it's not ideal. In fact, it can suck some serious ass at times. We currently use Skype, but if there's something out there that's better for the job, then we'd love to hear about it. Cheers, Dan Oliver editor, .net magazine

  by Dan Oliver on 2007-06-05 22:52:57

• Hi Dan, Anytime, man, it was fun! :)

  by aral on 2007-06-05 23:03:03