“I dreamed of working at Microsoft. When Microsoft joined up with Accenture to form Avanade the word ‘consultant’ sounded so wonderfully romantic to me and I wondered if ever I’d make it there as one of the elite band of Avanade consultants, spreading the Microsoft message all over the world. I dreamed of systems that would change lives, help people, and do cool new things never seen before,” Pete Wright, former Windows coder and once Microsoft employee, blogs.

“Somewhere along the way though, things changed. I don’t know exactly when or how, but the world I loved got torn to shreds, set fire to, then mooshed into a pile of horse manure,” Wright explains.

“I worked on some great projects too. At American Express 5 of us turned around a failed project into an outstanding success that to this day still makes that company a large sum of pure profit each and every day. At Enron, a small bunch of us designed a stunning trading system that never saw the light of day thanks to Ken Lay and his cronies screwing everything up,” Wright reports. “But, by and large I found myself in the same situation over and over. I was like that female friend or relative that we all have that seems to continually find themselves in love with abusive partners.”

Wright reports, “I’m on Microsoft ‘influencer’ lists, email lists where Microsoft people try to get me to tow the company line and say great things about them and their products because it’s perceived that I have an audience. The times that I’ve deviated from that line though I’ve found myself well and truly out in the cold.”

MacDailyNews Take: Get ready for your liquid nitrogen bath for this one, Pete.

Wright continues, “So, for the past 3 years I’ve worked very hard at a very personal goal, and today I succeeded. I’ve aligned my spare time with technologies I want to use. I learned the stuff I thought was cool, whether the rest of the world did or not. I use Macintosh. I write Ruby on Rails, Python and Perl code and love it. Why? Because most of the other people out there doing the same thing have that same passionate that ignited in me a desire to be in this career in the first place.”

Wright continues, “So, today I resigned my job, and completely ended my Microsoft career. I have taken a role as Director with a company at the leading edge of the “Web 2.0” curve. My team and I will write Ruby on Rails code, use Macintosh computers to do so, shun Microsoft technology completely, go to work in shorts and sandals and blast each other with nerf guns. My team is devoted to being the best it can be, to learning, to improving, to pushing boundaries. And it’s not Microsoft.

“I’m writing this on my Mac using NeoOffice Writer while the PC under my desk is, for the last time ever, removing Windows and all the trappings that go with it to install Ubuntu Linux. My Microsoft career is now officially over,” Wright continues. “Microsoft don’t innovate, in my opinion. Vista looks like a pile of crap compared to Mac OS X and Ubuntu with GLX. Their software is buggy, overpriced, and stress inducing. Their development tools are staid, designed and developed by committees to solve every problem you could ever conceive of, while being ideally suited to solving none.”

“Today, I’ve resigned to leave that world behind forever, and I couldn’t be happier,” Wright reports. “Microsoft are the new IBM, and Microsoft customers are just like the huge corporate suit wearing monoliths that bought into the whole IBM mirage back in the 70’s and 80’s. I don’t want to work for IBM. I just want to write cool software with talented passionate people, and make a difference in the world…Goodbye Microsoft.”

Full article, with even more, here.

[Attribution: The Inquirer Top Windows writer abandons Microsoft, Sees the light and buys an Apple. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “LinuxGuy and Mac Prodigal Son” for the heads up.]

MacDailyNews Take:

Here’s to the crazy ones.

The misfits.

The rebels.

The troublemakers.

The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently.

They’re not fond of rules.

And they have no respect for the status quo.

You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,

disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.

Because they change things.

They invent. They imagine. They heal.

They explore. They create. They inspire.

They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?

Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written?

Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people.

While some see them as the crazy ones, We see genius.

Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. – Apple Computer

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Dvorak: Microsoft malaise – eight signs that Microsoft is dead in the water – May 03, 2006

Microsoft about to lose the software business just as IBM lost the PC business in ‘80s – July 26, 2006

Microsoft suffers from malaise, key defections, Windows Vista struggles, lack of towels – September 16, 2005

Microsoft employees leaving due to (and blogging about) malaise smothering company – April 25, 2005

Microsoft’s lack of momentum, malaise won’t end anytime soon – March 16, 2005

Defending Windows over Mac a sign of mental illness – December 20, 2003