Microsoft recently moved to release their Virtual Server 2005 software for free. This is a somewhat unexpected, yet not surprising move by the software giant. With the fairly recent move to release a free edition of VMware Server, as well as recent strides in the Linux Virtualization space; the pressure on Redmond to deliver is clear.
This is a major step, and could have an interesting impact on the market. I’m wondering if we won’t see another Media Player vs. RealPlayer, or Internet Explorer vs. Netscape type battle (though at a smaller scale). By releasing this as a free product, they are walking into the same situation that has landed them in court several times before.
This could turn into a good show, might be worth watching to see what happens next.
Recently a programmer I know decided that it was time for a career change, leaving the IT field entirely. This gave me cause to think; what does it take to be a great developer. Many people go through school believing they have what it takes, only to receive a rude awaking once they enter the real world.
Before I go on, I think it’s important to define what I mean by developer, and the differences between a developer and a programmer.
I’m a developer, and I love what I do, it’s a great industry, and a very exciting field to be in. If you read my blog often, you’ll see I take every opportunity to mention how great this line of work can be, today I offer a somewhat different, less sugar-coated view.
The Pressure There is a constant pressure on developers to be better, to do more, to produce more, sometimes more than is possible.
Piracy is bad, right? Maybe not, and it seems Microsoft figured it out. Piracy can be indirectly profitable, both by giving you additional customers that you may collect from at some future point, and it also serves to reduce or limit the market share of rivals. Microsoft chairman, Bill Gates, acknowledged this back in 1998 while speaking at the University of Washington, saying:
Although about 3 million computers get sold every year in China, people don’t pay for the software.
Systems fail; it doesn’t matter what the system is. Something will fail sooner or later. When you design a system, are you focused on the happy path, or are you building with the possibility of failure in mind?
If you suffered a data breach tomorrow, what would the impact be? Does the system prevent loss by design, or does it just fall apart? Can you easily minimize loss and damage, or would an attacker have free rein once they get in?
The last release of YAWAST was on January 1, 2020; while the release history was sometimes unpredictable, the goal was a new release each month with new features and bug fixes. I intentionally took January off from the project. In February, I left the company I was at; the team of penetration testers there had helped to inspire new features while looking for ways to make them more productive. But something else happened in February, an issue was opened – something that appeared to be simple, but in fact, made me realize that the entire project was in doubt.
