Random .NET Ramblings

It has been a short-down time but I can tell I will go stir-crazy quickly if I don't get back to working soon. The pace at Microsoft was so intense that having little to do has been a shock to my system. I still am not sure what I would like to do, but I am going to begin talking to people about possibilities.

I do know I what want is some place where I can have real impact. With my background, I am fortunate that I have been able to do so many things. At Microsoft I enjoyed that I was able to bring my diverse background to develop and execute programs and projects. I am now a strange hybrid developer, program manager and project manager with great presentation skills.

Suggestions?

It looks like Novell has made it easy for .NET developers to create and deploy Mono based applications to Linux. This should scare Microsoft quite a bit, one of Microsoft's big concerns is to win server market share on the internet. They have created the WebsitSpark program just try to attract PHP developers to deploy on Windows and here is Novell making it easy for .NET developers to deploy to Linux. Looks like there will be some interesting times ahead for Miguel and the MS relationship people.

Test, package .NET apps for Linux with Visual Studio add-in - Ars Technica

For the record I can't see using Linux, Windows Server 2008 R2 has such good hosting tools now it would be much cheaper to Windows in the long run and at scale.

Today Microsoft announced another round of layoffs and I was included. It was totally unexpected and there was no explanation other than the (I am sure legally vetted) ?reorganize and restructure? answer. I am sure this is how they have handled past layoffs and if you look at the group I am in I can understand how the job I was doing was redundant, if I were management I could see selecting this position for removal. I had a counterpart doing the same job in NorCal and that is the market that Microsoft is more concerned with. I have looked at the current positions Microsoft has open in SoCal and decided not to apply as I would not be a good fit for them. So that leaves me with some thinking to do?

I will brush-up the resume but I really want to take some time to think about what?s next for me and my family. I am sure I will find many interesting opportunities and at least one that I will be excited about. My goal is to find something where I can make big contributions to ensure the success of an organization.

My network access and email will be shut off soon so you can reach me through this blog or use my gmail address or send a note on facebook or twitter @woodyp.

Thank you to all of the great people I was able to work with at Microsoft, I will look forward to seeing you all in the developer community soon.