Today Microsoft chairman and mastermind, Bill Gates, announced that the software giant is giving away million of dollars in developer applications with a new initiative called DreamSpark, which will provide professional software tools available at no charge to high school and university students worldwide.
Wow, good software Samaritan, we all love Microsoft, we really do.
The problem here is that for Microsoft it is nothing more than another Netscape, why? See it this way, why on earth would you like to give away professional softwares at not charge if in the end you won't end up earning twice what you have already given? It is an investment and giving away those applications only hurts the Microsoft competition.
This time is Adobe, which Microsoft chose as its favorite enemy.
Adobe and Microsoft danced a Tango for a very long time, the Tango is an amazing dance, where you must do your best to harmoniously orchestrate the must beautiful movements, the Tango ended being a disgraceful dance and Microsoft has decided to step in Adobe turf, competing directly with Adobe hardcore applications.
To achieve this new attack Microsoft created and is intensively marketing, Expression Studio, Expression Web, Expression Blend, Expression Design and Expression Media.
Now those applications can be downloaded and used at not charge; would you buy Flash or Illustrator if you have something similar FREE? Not way.
And this is where Adobe is going to be Netscaped and something must be done to avoid this.
Adobe is a powerhouse, with tremendous resources, but can't compete in a situation like this.
It is like playing baseball against the owner of the Bat and the Ball, you can't make a home run against him, this could terminate your game.
Lets wait for Adobe response to this matter, maybe we can get a free educational version of Adobe's applications or maybe some anti trust lawsuits, why not, this is a very complicated situation, in one side is Microsoft helping young boys and girls around the world, but in the other end is Adobe losing ground with an initiative that only helps Microsoft in the short and long term.