Microsoft's PR week: dissecting Web 2.0 instead of celebrating .NET 2.0

Talk about pissing on one's parade. Earlier this week I caught the rather unceremonious release of the latest versions of Microsoft's .NET Framework, Visual Studio, BizTalk Server and SQL Server, and only now did I make an effort to check them out. Some rollout - most of the connected world (i.e., mainstream media, the blogosphere) was busy dissecting what's been seen as a very suspect reaction to the "sea change" brought about by open source technologies and Google after Dave Winer posted internal MS memos from Bill Gates and Ray Ozzie on the topic. This totally negated the mammoth public relations momentum our Redmond friends normally build up prior to release.

I guess in retrospect, Microsoft got eactly what they wanted: media notoriety. They wanted to flex their muscle with .NET 2.0, but got hammered about its lack of focus for Web 2.0. Everyone's talking about them...just not for the reasons they had planned.

Oh well, no such thing as bad press.